


Demonic Adventures

by WhiteMustang1



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff, Explicit Language, F/M, Inappropriate Humor, M/M, Pregnancy, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2018-07-22 05:23:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 136,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7421629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteMustang1/pseuds/WhiteMustang1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Mostly) Dante and Nero's adventures as they go through life after the Savior incident. Sometimes serious, sometimes silly, sometimes immature. Anyways, this story will have adventure, drama, romance, mystery, etc., the general things we all endure in life. AU from DMC, as Nero is not directly related to neither Vergil nor Dante.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nothing Is As It Seems

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I first published this story back in 2015 on fanfiction.net but some of the readers there aren't very mature. I know some would like to just skip directly to when the real Dante/Nero story begins, so just in case you do, it starts for the most part on chapter 17. You will be missing some major details, including Nero's origins here, as well as numerous subtle relationship-building hints, but I completely understand if you would like to skip ahead then maybe backtrack later, if the story interests you.
> 
> Thank you and I hope you enjoy the story, I'd love to hear your opinions and constructive criticisms! Enjoy!

June 15th. Three months since the incident. “The incident” being when Sanctus, the supposed vicar of Sparda, nearly destroyed the town of Fortuna after erecting a massive, living statue that was to resemble Sparda. The people of Fortuna were so shocked and ashamed that somebody they use to place as being saint-like turned on them all that they now call the tragedy of that day as being “the incident.” That is, during the rare times they do discuss that day in hushed tones to one another. The name Sanctus was practically forbidden now. Soon after the incident, parents rushed to change the names of their children named in his honor. However, despite the tragedy, the townspeople's faith never wavered. If anything, they became even more loyal to Sparda. They believed he sent his son Dante to protect them since he was unable to.

Aside from the public's reaction to the Savior incident, the Fortunians immediately started recovering after the crisis was over. What was left of the dead was carefully collected and buried within the same day and the process of clearing out debris was started the next. Emergency orphanages and refugee areas were established in large buildings that were still standing. After the last three months, most of the debris has been cleared, including the remains of the hell gate, and a good portion of the buildings have been rebuilt or repaired. A new vicar has been appointed after careful review as well. However, the vicar will never have the same influence as he did before the incident. As for the Order of the Sword, they still remain intact as well, though their numbers have been greatly reduced to a handful of those the vicar feels are trustworthy and have the capabilities to protect the town. 

Despite its previous corruption, Nero is still a member of the Order. The new vicar was wary about keeping the half-demon as a part of the Order, but figured that if Dante, a son of Sparda, can trust him, then he there is no way Nero could be a bad guy. Speaking of Dante, he occasionally visits the small, old town from time-to-time. The life of a bad ass demon hunter is full of new demons to slay and women to hit on, but sometimes Dante will get a break for the day. On those days, he takes a trip down to Fortuna to help out or just waste some time with Nero. After all, it's refreshing for the older hunter to get away from the two hormonal women he has to deal with at home and spend some time with another guy every now and then, even if Nero is a bit of a girl at times. At first Dante was reluctant to spend his free time with a 19 year old. Doing something like that screamed “mid-life crisis” to the older man. But, the kid had tracked him down via phone book and had been constantly calling him, asking if he had the time to come see what all they had done with Fortuna. Dante knew he wasn't bugging him for that reason though. He knew that Nero was probably bored out of his mind being stuck in a small town with little to do and wanted somebody he had some things in common with to hang around. Besides, as Dante found out, spending the day around Nero and the other Order members wasn't that bad. It wasn't just kiddos in the Order, most of them were around Dante's age. Nero was actually the youngest of the bunch. With that being said, Dante found himself regularly visiting Fortuna. Tuesdays are almost always unusually slow for the hunter, so eventually Tuesdays became the day he'd spend away from his shop.

Currently, the older man was on a ferry to Fortuna. Since his first visit to the island, he had learned the quickest routes to the town. As it turns out, taking the ferry was faster than finding some old fisherman willing to take him to Fortuna. Dante was leaned up against the railing of the ship with his arms folded, looking out at the ocean. There were fishing boats out on the water, since the ferry was only a couple minutes away from Fortuna. You wouldn't know it by looking at the old culture of the small town, but the island was actually only about 30 minutes away from the mainland. 

The ferry made a sound comparable to two old, rusty pieces of metal colliding into each other as it docked. The people and objects on the ferry were jerked around as a result from the collision. During his first ferry trip, Dante nearly fell over because of this. Now, though, he had become a pro at grabbing onto the rail as if his life depended on it. As Dante got off of the ferry, he noticed that there was absolutely nobody around, except for the ferry employees. Fortuna is a small town, but on a bright, sunny day like today, usually there were at least a few families enjoying the cool ocean waters. 

Dante looked around for a nearby employee and quickly found one. “Hey, buddy, where is everybody?” The ferry employee was in the middle of unhooking the ferry from the dock, but briefly stopped to look at and answer Dante.

“Don'tcha know? A couple of people cleaning up debris in the middle of town came across some kind of cave. Ground below them collapsed and they fell right in. They were pulled back out and weren't hurt, but supposedly the hole has a tunnel that leads to something. Must be something demonic too, the Order now has the place surrounded and they aren't letting anybody near the place.”

A cave? Demons don't live in caves. At least, not a cave with its entrance covered and underneath a building. Dante thanked the man before heading towards the center of town. Finding the site wasn't that hard, since it looked like the entire town was there. Once the townspeople noticed Dante was there, they immediately started asking him questions about what had happened. Word had gotten out long ago that Dante was a son of Sparda, and apparently his lineage meant that he knew everything about anything. He just shrugged at them rather than explaining that he had no earthly idea what's going on and headed towards the center of the crowd. The citizens moved out of his way without hesitation, nobody was about to get in the way of the son of the being they worshiped. 

There were several Order members surrounding what looked like a hole in the ground. Beside the hole was a group of Order members talking to each other, with one of the members being Nero. He walked through the circle of members after greeting a couple of them and being allowed through. Nero was very focused on the conversation he was having with the other Order members, but Dante's flashy attire could attract anybody's attention. 

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Nero asked as he walked to the man in red.

“Had some free time. Looks like you've been kept busy.” Dante peered down into the sinkhole as he spoke.

“Just a little bit. Only been working on figuring this out for a few hours.” He replied with a sarcastic smirk. “They're deciding who's going down there now.” 'They' being the members Nero was previously speaking with. “They already said I'm going though. Something about me being able to claw a way out if the roof caved in, or some bullshit excuse like that.”

“Looks like a simple sinkhole to me. What's the need to send people down there?” Dante turned his attention back to Nero after deciding the sinkhole wasn't anything special.

“Just to see how long the tunnel is. We figure some kids long ago got bored and decided it'd be cool to make their own 'secret tunnel'. Nothing big, but we'll have to plug the hole and tunnel up with dirt to make sure the ground doesn't cave in anywhere else.” Nero crossed his arms as he spoke. He no longer bothered to put his demonic arm into a sling since it hindered his abilities too much. He did, however, still cover it up with his coat sleeve. The townspeople had accepted Nero and his arm, but he knew his arm still probably made them uncomfortable. 

“It took you hours to figure that out?” 

“Well, we had to rule out several other possibilities first.”

Dante chuckled at his response. “Looks like you're a detective now, huh?” 

“Whatever pays.” Since the destruction of the false hell gate, demons became scarce in Fortuna. This meant the Order more or less became the “policemen” of the town, instead of being a demon hunting task force. Nero didn't much like this, but the lack of work meant less people were in danger, which was a good thing in his book. “You wanna come along? There isn't much else to do around here.”

“Sure. Beats taking two more hours to go home and do nothing.”

Nero glanced towards the conversing Order members. “They'll take forever to decide... I'm just going to go ahead and go in. Get this done with as quickly as possible, there's no reason to spend the entire day on a stupid sinkhole.” 

“What's your rush? Got a hot date later?” 

“Yeah, if you consider paperwork hot. Tonight's the monthly 'figure out who screwed up and spent way too much of the Order's money last month' night.” 

“Sounds like fun.”

“I'm glad you think so. You'll be helping us out.” Nero smirked at him before jumping into the hole in the ground.

“Hey-! I wasn't being serious!” He followed in after Nero.

“Oh? You mean you wouldn't want to help me out?” Nero paused to pout at Dante before he started his journey down the tunnel, leaving Dante behind before he could respond.

“Well... no.... not with paperwork...” Dante muttered his complaint to himself before following his companion.

The tunnel was much longer than either of the demon hunters expected. The light from the hole had quickly left them and they were forced to rely on the glow from Nero's arm to see where they were going. The tunnel was fairly large, but was still a bit cramped for the two 6 foot tall men. After 30 minutes of walking down a one-way tunnel that was slowly taking them further down into the Earth's crust, the tunnel suddenly opened up to what appeared to be another tunnel. This tunnel had a much higher ceiling, much to the relief of the hunters, and was much wider. 

“I think we might want to turn back now. This clearly wasn't made by some kids and I don't know where this might lead to.” Nero wasn't exactly scared, but being in a huge underground tunnel that's completely dark made him a bit anxious.

“Are you kidding me? Where's your sense of adventure!” Dante, of course, wasn't intimidated by what they might find. He took a step forward, but froze when a clicking sound echoed through the tunnel. Following the click, the entire area lit up. They could now see that there were old-looking torches mounted onto the walls, all of which had simultaneously caught fire all at once. It was now apparent that they were no longer in a tunnel at all. Instead, the tunnel they were in had opened up to a large area that they could only assume was what the tunnel was meant to lead people to. 

At the back wall of the area, there is a 7 to 8 foot tall statue. The statue was clearly meant to represent a demon. The wings of the statue were folded up; the tail was curled around the base of the statue and had spiked protrusions starting at the very tip of the tail and followed along the statue's spine up to the base of the neck. The tail covered up the feet. The hands, however, were visible. The elbows were down while the hands were raised up to the statue's heart. The hands were clawed, much like Nero's own demonic hand, but were interlocked with one another. With the curled tail, the folded wings, and the position the hands were in, the statue looked as if it was meant to portray fear. The face of the statue appeared to be humanoid, but lacked the intricate details that the rest of the statue had. Though the features were plain and indistinctive, the eyes of the statue were clearly closed.

The area around the bottom of the statue was littered with objects. Burnt sage and frankincense was abundant. Two bowls of water were at either side of the statue's base. Aside from these objects and the statue, the room was barren. 

“Well, if this doesn't scream 'demonic worshiping ritual,' I don't know what does...” Nero commented after observing the room's contents.


	2. Study Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter delves more into Nero's personal life.

“I was kinda expecting blood all over the floor, guts hanging on the walls... Ya know, the way movies portray demonic rituals?” Dante almost seemed disappointed.

“Maybe they're nice enough to clean up the mess they make.” 

Soon after the boys had discovered what the tunnel led to, a couple Order members came in behind them. “By Sparda, what is this...?” The elder of the two members commented.

“Well, I'm no expert, but I'd say some kind of cult worshiping area.” Nero couldn't help but add in some sarcasm. After all, it seems pretty obvious what the place was used for.

“Everybody search the room for anything identifiable as to who might have done this and why.” He ignored Nero's sarcasm, likely because he's use to it.

They scoured the area for anything useful. Samples of the frankincense and sage were taken, though the water was left undisturbed. At first it seemed like there was absolutely nothing else in the room. There were no false walls or floors, no identifying marks on the statue, nothing. Then, Dante spotted something shiny just barely poking out from the ground near the statue. He brushed away the dirt covering and surrounding the object and soon found that it was a necklace chain. After some more digging, he found what the chain was attached to. It was a crucifix amulet attached to a chain. The crucifix was made of gold with the crucified Jesus on one side, much like any other crucifix. It's design was simple. Dante lifted the amulet from its dirt grave to study it better.

“Hey, come look at this.” The others stopped what they were doing to observe Dante's findings.

“What's a crucifix doing in a place like this?” The elder member wondered out loud. He collected the amulet from Dante, with his permission, and placed it within a plastic bag. “Looks like we'll have to do paperwork night another day.” His statement was followed with a sigh of relief from Nero. “Instead, we're going to figure out what exactly this place is.”

“What do you mean? It's just a place where crazy demonic cultists worship. What's the big deal?” Nero hated doing paperwork, but the idea of wasting his time on something that isn't that important wasn't appealing either.

“Nero, are you not in the least bit curious to find out why this place reeks of evil, yet there's a crucifix buried in the ground? That doesn't sound odd to you?” 

“Well, yeah... but-” “It's either this or paperwork. You can either help us try to find out if this place is anything special or you can do paperwork. Your choice.”

Nero crossed his arms and pouted like a child who didn't get his way. “Fine.”

Dante watched the dispute with amusement. Nero is generally very adult-like, but occasionally he'll show that he's still a teenager. These slip ups were usually pretty entertaining. “Aw, don't worry kid, I'll help ya out.” 

“Thanks..” He pouted, but was actually really thankful somebody else would be helping. More people helping means less work each person has to do.

“We should get back to headquarters. The quicker we get started, the quicker we finish.” The elder member swiftly went back into the tunnel to leave.

“God, he can be so anal.” The younger, named Willow, commented. “C'mon, if we don't hurry he might get pissed and cover up the entrance.” With that being said, they all began their ascent back to civilization.

It took a while to get back to the surface, and even longer to get to headquarters. However, once they got there, they were immediately greeted by stacks upon stacks of books that gave off a nasty mold smell.

“Perfect timing. This crucifix looks like it's been in the ground for quite a while, so I pulled out all the books the Order has dating at or before 100 years ago.” The elder member had just sat down one of the stacks that are in the center of the room. How he got back here so quickly was a mystery to the others.

“Ugh..” Nero groaned with disgust at the odor the books put off. “We can't find out a more precise date? It'll take forever to read through all these books.”

“I tried, but gold doesn't show age like other metals. So I just had to go off of what the crucifix itself looks like. It's design is older, at least 100 years, but figuring out just how old is almost impossible.”

Nero picked up one of the books topping one of the stacks, flipping through it briefly. “Guess we outta get started then..” He had finally accepted that there was no getting out of this. He sat down on one of the sofa's in the room as he began reading. The room looked as though it's the Order's “hang out” area. It had a few sofas, chairs, a tv, and other objects you'd expect in an area meant to be relaxing. Nero was soon joined by Dante, with a book in hand, on the sofa. The others grabbed a book of their own and settled into their own spots.

“What's up with you? You've been really quiet.” Nero conversed as he read.

“You do enough talking to talk for the both of us. No need for me to say anything if everybody's having to focus on your jabbering, eh?” Dante smirked.

Nero, without having to look at him, knew he had smirked and punched the side of his arm as punishment. Dante rubbed his arm, pretending as though it actually hurt.

“Violent and a chatty Cathy.” He flinched as Nero raised his arm again, but Nero seemed to have a change of heart and put his arm back down. Instead, he had settled on briefly glaring a playful warning at Dante.

Read books were tossed into their own pile, away from the unread books. Nobody was fully reading anymore, just skimming to get a brief idea of the book's contents. If it mentioned nothing useful, it was tossed aside. Hours ticked by until it was dusk. Order members had come and joined their binge reading session as word spread around of their discovery. At some point, Kyrie had come into the headquarters building. Nobody realized this until plates of food suddenly started appearing in front of them.

“You made us dinner?” Nero had torn himself away from reading to look up at the woman standing beside him.

“Of course. I figured you would all be busy, so the least I can do is make sure you don't go hungry.” Her smile that she wore as she spoke was drenched with innocence.

“Thanks.” Nero returned her smile with his own. He turned his attention to the food in front of him.

“Don't exhaust yourself with reading, okay?” Her tone was liked a worried mother speaking to her child. She bent over and kissed Nero's cheek, and, before leaving the building, gave him a goodbye smile.

“Oooooo!” The handful of Order members who had apparently been watching cooed at Nero with knowing smirks the very second Kyrie left. Dante had also been watching and was also smirking at him, but did not partake in the cooing. 

Nero, who had forgotten he wasn't alone, looked up. His face flushed when he realized he really wasn't alone. “Oh shut up.” He managed to murmur, though incredibly embarrassed. 

“No need to be embarrassed, Nero! You should feel proud that you're finally getting laid.” A member named Jack teased, just to make him more embarrassed.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! It was just a kiss!” He began fidgeting in his embarrassed state. 

As Dante watched him, he realized just how adorably cute Nero looked whenever he became flustered. He looked like a school girl trying to talk to her crush while fumbling over her words and refusing to look him in the eyes. Wait, cute? No, that can't be the right word.... 

Jack eyed Nero with suspicious looks. “Are you telling me you two have been together for three months and the most you've gotten is a kiss?”

“My personal life is none of your business.” He defended, suddenly becoming very interested in looking at his food while he ate.

The room fell silent for a minute. “Oh, shit, you're still a virgin! Oh Nero, why didn't you tell us before? We can help you, you know! We're here for you, buddy!” Jack didn't actually care if Nero does or doesn't have a sex life, but, considering their friendship, he couldn't just let something like that slide without some playful teasing.

“Help me? What the hell are you going to do, stand in the corner and cheer me on?” This statement actually surprised everybody into silence. Nero? Joking about 'intimate activities'? Impossible. “Besides, she wants to get married first. I'm not going to argue with that. And I don't really mind waiting anyways.” 

“Really? Not at all? Are you sure you're a teenage boy?” Willow chimed in.

Nero, having had finished his meal, leaned back into the couch with his arms crossed defensively. “Not really. I don't want to turn into this guy.” He gestured his thumb towards Dante. 

“Huh-? What did I do?” Dante was genuinely confused. He had taken an odd interest in the conversation and wasn't really prepared to be thrown into the conversation himself.

“If he's not hunting demons, he's chasing women. I mean, I'm sure um-” He cleared his throat nervously. “-the experience is enjoyable, but I don't want it to take over my priorities.”

Dante laughed at this. A genuine laugh, not a sarcastic one like usual. “Aw, you wound me kid. You really think I run around that much?” He spoke rhetorically. “I haven't even done anything in over three months. I mean, I know I'm gorgeous, but I do have things I have to do that aren't women.”

“Three months? Wow. No time or all the good ones left town?” It was Jack who spoke up this time.

“Nah, just haven't been very interested lately. Not sure why.”

“You? Not interested? Has Hell frozen over?” Nero had gotten past his own embarrassment by now and decided picking on Dante would help him recover his pride. “Maybe your old age is catching up with you.”

“Hey, I'm still in my prime! But ya gotta take breaks every now and then. You can't be a lady killer all the time, ya know.” 

Nero just shook his head in disbelief as he chuckled. Within a few minutes, with all the food devoured, they had resumed their original task of reading.

It was now 1 am. Most of the Order members had passed out by now, unable to read even another sentence. The ones still awake were fighting a losing battle with sleep as their eyelids constantly drooped down, only to suddenly open again with a start. 

Nero was no exception. He kept finding himself slouching over to his side as his eyes blurred the text he was reading. Once he realized what he was doing, he would suddenly sit up straight and continue reading like nothing happened. Within a few minutes, Nero had fallen asleep sitting up. His body, unable to go against gravity now, slowly slouched towards its side. Though, an object blocked his body from actually falling onto his side and, instead, he slouched onto the object. Nero had woken himself up a bit from the impact and figured the couch's arm rest had caught him. Too tired to fight back sleep anymore, he resigned to cuddling up to the arm rest to at least make sleep more comfortable.

Unknown to Nero, that 'arm rest' was actually Dante's side. Another thing unknown to Nero is that Dante was still awake. He was more than use to staying up late, so he had no issue being awake at 1 am. Dante had watched as Nero had fought sleep and watched as he gave in and fell onto his side with his head on Dante's shoulder. At first Dante was going to wake him up so Nero could lay down onto the other side of the couch instead of on him, but figured waking him up would only piss him off. Besides, being cuddled up to felt kinda nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to avoid using OC's for this story because I personally don't usually like OC's, but I found it very difficult to write a good plot solely with Dante, Nero, Lady, and Trish that hasn't already been done by other authors. I also tried a new writing technique with this story, in that any OC's in this story will not have any physical traits defined. Whenever I read a story, I unconsciously ignore the author's description of a character unless certain traits are important and frequently mentioned. I prefer to conjure up my own image of what the character looks like, and so I decided I wouldn't limit my readers to a list of unimportant traits I came up with on my characters. You want them to have short, curly blonde hair? Sure. Or maybe they'll have freckles and a big nose? Whatever your heart desires. I may mention some traits here and there, but unless it is stressed that that particular trait is important, I wouldn't stress over remembering it by heart. 
> 
> I should also mention that these Order members can get a bit crude. I figure people who're specialized in killing things won't have the most innocent of minds. No offense is meant to anybody who may be offended in the future. Enjoy!


	3. Solving The Mystery

“Hey, lovebirds, get up. The Old Man found something.” “Old man” being an affectionate term for the elder member of the Order. Willow roughly shoved the pair to ensure they woke up.

At some point during the night, Nero's arms had become wrapped around Dante, and Dante, who was probably uncomfortable with his arm being pinned to his side by Nero, had put his arm on Nero's shoulder. What was once peaceful snoring coming from the two was now groans of discomfort, followed by exchanging looks of confusion and realization.

“Ugh... what time is it?” Nero rubbed his eyes in an attempt to wake himself. He would deal with his embarrassment later, right now he is too tired to care. Dante is pretty tired too, but he's usually tired when he wakes up anyways because of his constantly changing sleep schedule.

“8 o'clock in the morning.” Replied Willow.

“Why the hell are you waking me up this early?” He looked over at Willow with dark circles under his eyes. Clearly somebody was a bit grumpy since he didn't go to bed on time. 

“C'mon, where's your spunk? Lets get moving, before the Old Man leaves without us. Or you can stay here and miss all the action, whatever you want to do.” 

“Action? What Action? I thought we were still looking through books?” Nero tossed the book he was reading before he had fallen asleep onto the floor.

“Were you not listening to me? He found something. He stayed up reading books and he's been going on about how he's found the key to the mystery or some shit like that. Probably just his old age finally catching up with him, but it's either believe him or continue reading these moldy books.” Nero stood up reluctantly from the couch.

“So, believing him it is.” Nero decided. Dante stood up from his spot as well. As he stretched out, his joints popped from finally being moved after hours of being in the same position. Nero turned his attention to Dante. “Speaking of old age...” He teased with a smirk. The prospect of doing something other than reading had made him forget that he's supposed to be tired and grumpy.

“Nah, I just wasn't able to move for the past few hours, thanks to a certain kid pinning me to the couch's arm rest.” He knew bringing that up would quiet Nero, at least for now.

“...Well, we should get moving.” Nero, predictably, no longer had an interest in teasing Dante anymore. 

“He's probably already on his way to the cave-tunnel-thing. I guess we'll meet him at its entrance.” With that, Willow left the building and headed towards the cave with the two devil hunters soon following behind him.

It didn't take them very long to reach the cave's entrance. The Old Man was standing beside the entrance, reading an old book that seemed to be extremely interesting to him. He didn't even notice the three men approaching.

“Hey, whatcha got there?” Nero was the first to speak up. His unexpected voice startled the man.

“Oh- yes- I should've figured you would be here by now. I found this book and.. it's... well, take a look yourself.” The Old Man closed the book and handed it to Nero. The book even felt old. The cover of the book's title was in what Nero believed to be Latin. 

“Any idea what it's titled?” Nero asked as he opened the book and began to flip through the pages.

“I think it says 'Techniques To Kill Evil Beings'. I'm no expert in Latin though, that's just what I was able to translate from a Latin dictionary. Basically, it's a book on how to kill demons.”

“What makes you think this book is related to what we're trying to figure out then? There are no dead demons in there.” Nero closed the book after determining it was useless. He offered it over to Dante, who took the book from Nero and started to flip through the pages himself.

“Go to the last few pages.” Dante did as the Old Man said and flipped to the very back of the book. The left page was a rough drawing while the right was text. The drawing depicted a small group of people carrying torches and weapons. The people were cornering a demon into a hole in the ground. Dante looked over at the right page. The Old Man had circled and translated several words on the page, enough to understand what the text said. Dante pieced together the scattered English words as he read.

_“To properly subdue the demon, you must first collect large amounts of sage and crushed frankincense. Obtain two bowls of freshly made holy water. Build a crypt below a church or other holy ground. The underground crypt will remove the demon's influences from the village and the presence of God in the grounds above the crypt will prevent the demon from escaping. Ensure that there are plenty of lit torches within the crypt. Demons thrive in the darkness and the light will keep them weak. Once the crypt is prepared, corner the demon into it. Place the bowls of holy water on either side of the demon to further weaken him once you have it in the crypt. Burning the sage will cleanse the air of the evil the demon produces. Scatter the frankincense around the crypt, the demon will not want to walk across it and escape. As the sage is being burned, a holy priest should recite the blessing mentioned in the previous passage. The blessing should be put on a crucifix or other holy item. Repeat the blessing onto as many objects as needed until the process is complete. Bury the blessed items into the ground surrounding the demon. This will bury his soul into the ground below, therefore separating his body from his spirit. If successful, the demon's body will turn to stone in reaction to the separation from his spirit. The demon is not yet dead, it is only in hibernation, awaiting on the return of its soul. Depending on the size and power of the demon, it may take several millenniums for the demon to die from deterioration. Because of that, it is not recommended that this technique be used on all demons. This should only be used if all other attempts at destroying it have failed.”_

“Was there a building over this area?” Dante continued to examine the page for anything he might've missed as he spoke.

“Yeah, but it wasn't a church like the passage says you need. It was somebody's house.” The Old Man responded.

“All of the buildings here have been reused for centuries though.” Nero spoke up. He and Willow had been standing on either side of Dante and had quietly been reading along with him.

“But there hasn't been any Christian churches here since before Sparda first ruled here, around two thousand years ago. Was Christianity even a thing back then?” Willow chimed in.

“Yeah, it was a thing. A new thing, but a thing.” Nero thought to himself for a few seconds. “Do we even know when Sparda came along and named the town Fortuna? Maybe he came here after, like... 150 AD? By that time Christianity was pretty popular and I know he wasn't the founder of the town, so that must mean he just stumbled across a town and named it Fortuna and named himself the ruler of the town. Kind of a dick move on his part, though... but anyways, if that's what happened then there was probably at least one Christian church here.” Willow gave Nero a sarcastic look of surprise. 

“Well whaddayaknow. Nero is actually trying to help instead sitting on his ass until something exciting happens.” Willow's sarcasm earned him an unamused look from Nero.

“I doubt we'll find any books on the history of the town before it was Fortuna.” The Old Man mused.

Dante closed the book and handed it back over to the Old Man. “Looks like all we can do is go down there and mess with stuff until something happens then.”

Nero looked at Dante with concern. “Until something happens? If this really is a crypt holding a powerful demon, why on earth would we want to go in there and possibly release it?” 

“Well, if it really is that, and the demon is still alive, it's probably pretty weak. It shouldn't be too hard to take care of it.”

The Old Man nodded in agreement with Dante. “He's right. Besides, the civilians know something's down there now. If we don't get rid of the problem, they might get curious and go snooping around in there. Which means we might get a ton of deaths on our hands if they accidentally release anything hiding in there, since we didn't take care of the problem before something happened.” 

“Let's get going then!” Willow quickly jumped down into the crypt. They hadn't gotten many calls to slay any demons lately, so he's gotten a bit restless from the lack of action. Dante jumped in next, followed by Nero. The Old Man stayed behind to ensure the area stayed secure and that no civilian's got near the entrance. The trio made their descent back down into the crypt for the second time. Nothing in the tunnel or crypt had been disturbed, though the crypt's torches were still lit from the night before.

Willow sighed with relief. “Oh good, the torches are still lit. I would've felt stupid if we had come down here just to realize we can't see shit in the dark..” 

Dante came into the crypt behind Willow. “That's what he's for.” He gestured behind himself, towards Nero.

“Hey! What's that supposed to mean?” 

“That's supposed to mean you have a built-in light.” Dante chuckled to himself as he began the process of gathering the scattered sage, frankincense, and the various amulets.

“You're just jealous.” 

“I dunno. Sounds like it might get annoying after a while. Does it have a 'turn off' switch when you want to sleep?” Dante gently picked up the two bowls of holy water that were beside the statue one at a time. He placed them in the corner farthest from the statue.

“Actually, I think it's controlled by emotions. The more powerful the feeling is, the brighter it is. But whenever I'm tired or feeling bad, it almost has no glow. Still trying to figure this thing out though.” 

“Either way, I'd think it'd be awesome if I had claws. Like, for whenever I have a REALLY itchy spot. I bet claws would feel so heavenly..” Willow chimed in. “But anyways, back to the matter at hand, in case you don't know, we're collecting all the amulets, sage, frankincense, and holy water. Take that stuff outta here, but don't take the amulets just yet. The book said something about how it's soul is in them, so while you two collect stuff I'll be doing the fun part of trying to figure out how to.. well, how to put its soul back into the body.. statue... thing.” He sat down up against one of the walls and examined over the amulets as Dante and Nero find them. It took them a while, but eventually all of the sage, frankincense, and holy water had been taken out of the crypt and disposed of. They had found several dozen amulets buried all around the statue. 

“Alright, everything's out. You figured it out yet?” Dante asked Willow as he walked back into the crypt with Nero following behind him.

“Yeah, I think so.” Willow gave the amulet he was holding a final once-over before looking up at the two devil hunters. “I think we just need to break them.”

“You think? What if we break them all and we weren't supposed to?” Nero questioned.

“Well, breaking the object should free whatever it's concealing. But if it doesn't, then that just means we permanently sealed away a demon. So it doesn't really matter if we mess up. Though, if breaking the amulets sealed away the demon's soul forever, I would think whoever did this would've already broken them to make sure the demon can't leave.” As he was speaking, Willow stood up and began placing the amulets in a line on the ground with space in between each amulet. “I think a good swing of a sword should break these.” After aligning the amulets, Willow went to the first amulet in the line and readied himself and his sword. 

“Are you sure about this? We're not going to get cursed or something?” Nero was obviously concerned for their own sake. 

“If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're scared.” Dante smirked, his accusation causing Nero to become visibly embarrassed.

“Nah, nothing should happen. I saw this in a movie once and nothing happened to them.” Willow lifted his sword into the air.

“You what-” Though, before Nero could intervene, Willow had struck the amulet with his sword as if his sword was a hammer. Everybody fell silent as they waited for something to happen. To their amazement, absolutely nothing happened.

“What? Nothing? Aw man.. in the movie there was like this cool scene where some spirit appeared and it was really cool...” 

“This isn't a movie, Willow.” Nero rolled his eyes at him. “Well, I guess there's nothing else to do but destroy the rest of 'em..” And so, they did. Each amulet was destroyed one at a time, with each one of them taking turns destroying the amulets. 

“This is the last one..” Nero said nervously. It was his turn to destroy the next, or rather last, amulet. “Hey, Dante, why don't you do the honors?” He tried to make his offer seem genuine, though he really just didn't want destroy the last one himself.

“Yeah yeah, I'll do it.” Dante moved to take Nero's place in front of the amulet, since he had moved away from it as soon as Dante said he'd do it for him. Willow and Nero braced themselves for the worst as Dante put all his strength into hitting the amulet with his sword. As soon as the deed had been done, Dante lifted his sword and got ready to fight whatever appeared. Though, the crypt was silent. Seconds ticked by, but there was still no movement or sound.

A full minute ticked by before anybody dared to say anything. “Well what the hell, all that for nothing?” Nero was both disappointed and annoyed. After the echo's of his voice dissipated, a rumbling and crackling sound came from the statue's direction. Immediately, everybody shifted their focus onto the statue. 

The statue rumbles and crackled for several seconds, each one being more violent than the last, before actual cracks appeared on the statue. The cracks soon covered the entire statue and began to crumble off of what laid underneath the hard outer layer. The entire outer layer fell off at once and revealed a very deteriorated looking creature. It had jet black, cracked skin that looked extremely fragile. The creature retained the position it had while in statue form, that is its wings remained folded, the tail curled around its feet, it's eyes closed and the hands folded in a position similar to how a person would pray. They knew, though, that it was indeed alive and not still a statue since it's chest rose and fell periodically to indicate slow, deep breaths. It had black horns that resembled a Chamois' horns, though pointed more backwards instead of pointing straight up. One horn was intact, but the other was broken in half with the broken half just barely clinging to the other half. The frame of the demon's looked like it was meant for power and strength, though after around a couple thousand years of inactivity its body had become starved and had resorted to cannibalizing its muscles to remain alive. Now, a delicate layer of skin covers the thin layer of muscle that still clings to the demon's bones.

“What do we do? I think it's sleeping..” Nero whispered as quietly as he possibly could, as if he didn't want to wake the demon.

“Do demons even sleep?” Willow wondered out loud. With the sounds of voices filling the room, the demon opened its oval shaped eyes to reveal deep scarlet irises with humanoid pupils. They then lifted their swords into a battle-ready position as they waited for the demon to attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I was researching demonic rituals, I found that, apparently, frankincense, sage, and holy amulets can be used to repel or subdue demons. Of course, holy water can be used too, but everybody knows that.


	4. Good or Bad?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang faces the being that had been previously entombed in the cave.

The demon looked over the three hunters silently, then observed the crypt they are in. After a few seconds of observing, it turned its attention back to the three humans. Or, well... the human and the two partial humans. The demon took its hands out of their interlocked position and instead put its arms next to the side of its body as it watched them.

“Where are the others? There were many people here last time I was awake... Where did my brothers go?” It's voice cracked and had become quiet after so many years of not being used. Despite the softness of its voice, you could still tell the voice is masculine.

“I guess he doesn't know what happen..” Willow whispered mostly to himself. The demon turned his attention to Willow. “Who are you, mortal man?”

Willow looked at the other two hunters beside him, then back at the demon. “Who? Me?”

“You are the only true mortal in the room.” It wasn't difficult for the demon to figure out the two white-haired men were not completely human.

“Oh, right.. Tell me your name first.” Willow tried to sound serious and intimidating, but it's just not in his nature to be that way.

“I, am Aglæca. I was once a strong warrior, capable of defeating any who stood in my way. But, I have become feeble and old. I cannot harm any of you if that is why your swords are drawn. Though, if it is your wish to slay me, I request that you do it now, while I still have the strength to endure it.”

“What do we do? I don't want to kill an old man-..demon, that's just pathetic.” Nero whispered to his teammates.

Willow took a few seconds to observe the old demon. “Maybe I'm just being naïve, but I don't think he really poses a threat.” 

“But he's still a demon. Isn't it our job to slay all demons?” Nero looked pretty conflicted on what to do.

Seconds of silence ticked by without anybody saying anything else. “It's your call, kid.” Dante finally broke the silence.

All the while, the old demon, Aglæca, observed them patiently. He watched as Nero approached him, not with his sword in an attack position, but still drawn. He admired his bravery as Nero got within a couple feet of him. He may be weak, but he could still do damage to the young man with him being this close. They looked each other in the eyes, both of them studying the other for several tense moments.

“We will take you to our headquarters, we won't hurt you if you don't hurt us. You'll stay in one of the special cells we have. I'd like to ask you a few questions once you're well enough to answer them, like why the hell you're here.” Nero paused briefly. “After that, we'll decide what we should do with you since we obviously can't let you wander around town. If you try to escape or run..” He looked back at the demon's wings. “..or fly away, we will be forced to kill you. Understand?”

“Understood.” 

“Good.” Nero stepped backwards, away from the demon and towards Dante and Willow. He didn't want to turn his back to Aglæca. “So, umm.... How do we get him out of here safely..?” 

“Well.. we can't exactly waltz out of here with a black demon that has a tail and wings without being noticed.” Dante said. “We'll have to disguise him somehow.” 

Willow looked down at his clothing. “We have coats on. Maybe one of us could give him a coat to cover him up?” 

“That'd work. But what about his face?”

“True...” Willow thought for a second, then eyed Nero's clothing. He smirked mischievously at him.

Nero looked at Willow, then became nervous with Willow looking at him like that. “What..?”

“It seems like you're the only one who has a hood that can cover his head.” Said Willow.

“Yeah.. but that hood is attached to my shirt, not to my coat.” 

“I know.”

Nero stood there confused for a second. It didn't take him very long to realize what Willow was hinting at. “No! I am not giving him my coat AND my shirt! There has to be a better way of hiding him than giving him my clothes and me running around half naked!” He crossed his arms stubbornly.

“C'mon Nero, this is the easiest way. Besides, headquarters isn't far from here. Nobody will see you.” Willow tried to persuade him.

Nero thought it over for a few seconds before letting out a sigh of defeat. “Fine.” He uncrossed his arms, then reluctantly removed his coat from his body, then unzipped his shirt and removed that as well.

Willow wolf whistled as Nero took off his shirt. “Daaammnn. Look at that sexy beast!” He told Dante, teasing Nero. Dante's response was to smirk and chuckle to himself, though he didn't actually comment on what Willow said. Although he'd never said it out loud, Dante had to admit to himself that Nero certainly wasn't bad looking. He didn't have as much muscle as Dante, but he had just enough muscle to woe the ladies and still look young. After all, you gain muscle mass over time, so the more muscle you have the older a person tends to be. Though, Dante would never admit that he had to of checked out Nero in order to come to that conclusion. “I have to say, if I were gay, I'd definitely ask you out.” Willow half-complimented, half-teased.

“Thanks, but you're not my type.” Nero smirked. He went back up to Aglæca and offered up his clothes to him, leaving Willow to mutter to himself about how he's too good for Nero anyways. “This will keep you covered. Try to keep your tail tucked under the coat and keep the hood over your head. We'll be taking the back roads, so nobody should see us, but it won't hurt to take precautions.”

The demon focused on Nero as he spoke, then looked over the articles of clothing after Nero had finished speaking. He turned them inside out, looked over every inch of cloth, examined the sleeves, and after thoroughly looking over the clothes, he looked at Nero in obvious confusion. “I have seen many humans with clothing, but... I do not know how to stick it onto my body like they do.” 

“Oh! Of course, you've never had to put on clothing... Here, I'll show you.” Nero proceeded to show him how to properly put on a shirt and coat. The clothes very loosely hung on the demon's thin body.

Aglæca observed his own body and the clothing on it. “I see why humans like to wear a second layer of skin now. It helps keep the body warm and it is also quite comfortable.” 

“Yeah, well, you're not wearing pants, otherwise you'd know just how unbearable clothes are..”

“Says the one who didn't want to take off his clothes.” Willow reminded him.

“That's because I had to take off my shirt instead of my pants.”

“You can take off your pants if you want.”  
Nero shot him a glare. “We're not having this argument right now.”

“Lighten up, kid. Here, take my coat.” Dante took off his own coat and offered it to Nero. “Maybe you'll be less grouchy with it on.”

Nero inspected the coat in suspicion before deeming it was safe to wear. He took it from Dante and put it on himself. “Thanks.” Though he didn't sound like it, he was actually very grateful.

Dante waved off his thanks. “We gotta get going. The sooner we get him away from here the sooner we can eat.” He gestured for the others to go first.

“Do you ever not think about food?” Nero teased. “Just follow me. Willow will be beside you and Dante will be behind you.” He informed Aglæca. The demon walked closer to Nero to affirm he had heard and will follow him. Nero turned his back to Aglæca, trusting his partners would kill the demon if it tried to hurt him.

“In his defense, we woke up pretty early and now it's already almost 4 o'clock and we still haven't eaten anything.”

“Oh hush. I'm sure you two will survive the walk back to headquarters.” Nero teased. With that, they began their trip back to the surface and remained silent until they reached the crypt's opening. 

Nero shielded his eyes once the daylight hit his face. “Ugh... We were down there for too long, the light hurts..” He groaned as he exited the crypt and waited for the others to join him. Aglæca, who was directly behind Nero, instantly cringed and covered his face with his hands once he had reached the surface. He let out groans and moans of discomfort and pain.

“Hey, you okay? You're not one of those demons that can't be exposed to light, right?” Nero was concerned for the demon, but could do nothing to help him.

“Nero, he's not a vampire. Sheesh.” Willow said satirically as he joined the pair above ground. The light didn't seem to bother him. Dante followed Willow out of the darkness.

“Did anybody check for fangs?” Dante joked. He held his hand in front of where the sun was to block the light from reaching him.

“No, no... I am not... The sun is very cruel to eyes that have been below ground for a long time...” Aglæca explained as he tried to adjust to the light. Luckily for him, Nero's hood kept most of the light off of his face, making the transition from dark to light easier. As soon as he was able to see again, the group began walking again.

They reached headquarters without further incident. Nero opened the front doors just barely enough to be able to peak inside. “Okay, it looks clear.” He opened the doors completely and walked inside, followed by the rest of the group. Nero headed in the direction of the spiral staircase. He stopped suddenly and looked back when he heard a loud bang sound coming from behind him. 

“Sorry, I thought they were heavier.” Dante had apparently closed the doors too hard.

Nero quickly put his pointer finger to his lips. “Be quiet! We don't want anybody to know about-” “Hey, look what the cat dragged in!” Jack announced to the rest of the building. He was standing   
at the doorway that connected the room they were in to another room. “Oh man, look at that poor thing! You guys must've beat him to hell.” He approached Aglæca to get a better look at him.

“Jack, be quiet! If the captain finds out he'll kill him and probably make us wish we were dead too. Well, not Dante of course...” Willow whispered.

“Oh, so you're going behind his back? Breaking the rules?” Jack gave them a disapproving look. After a few moments of silence between them all, Jack smiled widely. “Sounds like fun! I'm in. So what's going on?” 

Nero let out an audible sigh of relief. He didn't want to go head-to-head with the captain, not since he was the one who let him stay in the Order. “I'll explain in a minute. First, we need to get him to one of those old holding cells in the basement before anybody else finds out he's here. Could you possibly find the keys to lock him in?” 

“Those old things? They haven't been used in decades.”

“But they should still get the job done. Otherwise the Order wouldn't still be spending on money to keep them in good shape.”

“True, true... I think I might know where the keys are, if the captain hasn't moved them.” Jack quickly rushed out of the room and out of sight.

Nero watched him leave. “Okay, this way.” He led them over to the spiral staircase, then proceeded to go down the stairs and into the basement. The basement looked more like a jail than an actual basement. There were at least a dozen holding cells and a few solitary confinement cells, likely used for those too dangerous to be around others. Nero walked down the row of cells, then stopped at a cell that had its door open. He moved away from the cell's entrance and motioned for Aglæca to step inside. Aglæca willingly stepped inside the cell without protest. “Before you lock me in, may I request a bucket of water?” He said as he turned towards the remaining group of three. After he had fully turned towards them, he took off Nero's coat and shirt and handed them back over to him. Nero took back his clothes, but decided it'd be better to wash off the dirt and debris that came from the demon before wearing it again.

“What for?” Dante asked out of curiosity.

“I cannot start the healing process until I am able to cleanse myself of this dead skin and tissue.”

Willow nodded. “I'll go get it.” He headed back towards the stairs.

“Get him a plate of food and something to drink while you're up there!” Nero called out to Willow before he left. An echoing response of “Got it” could be heard afterwards. Aglæca looked around the cell, taking in his new surroundings. He noticed the white, bowl shaped object with water inside the bowl. “What is this? A bowl to drink from?” He approached the toilet in the corner of the cell with curiosity.

“Oh my God, Dante.. He doesn't even know what a toilet is.” Nero sniggered.

Dante chuckled with him. “I'll let you teach him modern technology then.” Aglæca noticed the shiny metal handle protruding from the metal pole connected to the toilet. He touched it, then jiggled it, causing the toilet to flush. This startled the elder demon, causing him to jump back a few feet away from the toilet. Although it was funny to see a demon get scared by a toilet, the pair held in their laughs for the sake of Aglæca's dignity. 

“That is a toilet. It's where you, um... 'do your business'. It's not for drinking.” Nero informed him. Although it took him a few seconds, Aglæca realized what exactly 'doing your business' meant.

“Oh, I see. That's quite a useful invention.”

“Yeah, there's probably a lot of things we have now that you've never seen.” 

“Alright, I found somebody's lunch in the fridge, so he can eat whatever's in there.” Willow said as he walked into the basement from the stairs. He held a full bucket of water with a rag inside with one hand and a lunch box in the other.

“Willow! You couldn't just make something instead of stealing somebody's lunch?” Nero scolded.

“Yeah, I could've... but this is much easier.” Willow walked up and into to the still-open cell. He placed the bucket down and handed the lunch box to Aglæca.

The old demon eyed the lunch box before taking it from Willow. He walked over to the lone chair in the cell and sat down on it. It didn't take him very long to figure out how to open the box. He didn't hesitate to eat what was inside the lunch box, even though it was full of things he's never eaten before.

“Looks like demons really like Doritos’s.” Dante commented.

“How does it not hurt to sit down when you have a big ass tail like he does...?” Nero commented as well. The other two observed the demon as he scarfed down Doritos, a ham sandwich, some soda, and other things that he ate too quickly for them to identify. “You know, I always thought that the older demons were really tall, like in the books. He's only about 6 feet tall.” Aglæca stopped eating to look up at them. Apparently he had heard them.

“I was once much taller and bigger. It seems either old age or being trapped within that prison has made me shrink in size.” He then resumed eating.

About this time, Jack came down the staircase with keys in hand. “I found them! They're rusty, but they should still work.” He handed off the keys to Nero once he had reached him. Nero nodded in thanks to Jack.

“Willow and Jack are going to stay here and guard you. If you try to escape, they will kill you. We don't want to resort to that, but we can't risk you possible hurting other people if you escape. I'll come down here every few hours to see if you need anything.” With that, Nero closed the door to the cell and locked it with the keys. Aglæca nodded to Nero to tell him he understood. 

“Wait, what? I never signed up for guard duty!” Jack protested once he realized Nero said 'Willow and Jack'.

“This is the only way to make sure you won't tattle on us to the captain.” Nero smirked. “Besides, there needs to be two people here. I'm going to be the one who gets his food and stuff and Dante, well.. He probably has better things to do than babysit in here.” Dante didn't really have anything else to do. He kinda wanted to see how things turned out with Aglæca, so he had already planned on staying here for awhile. But, he didn't want to be put on guard duty either, so he didn't volunteer to take Jack's place.

Jack crossed his arms and grumbled. “Fine. But I'm not standing all damn day, I'm getting a chair.” He set out to look for a chair in the basement. 

Nero shook his head and chuckled at Jack. “Have fun with that. C'mon Dante, want to go eat some dinner?”

Dante smirked. “I thought you'd never ask.” 

“The cook should be finishing up now. It's not pizza, but it's food.” He teased.

“At this point, I'd eat anything.”

“ _Anything_?” Nero asked as he headed up the stairs.

“Okay, well, maybe not _anything_.....” He followed after Nero. A faint yell from Jack saying “Get us some too!” could be heard as they went up the spiral staircase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aglæca means "monster, demon, fierce enemy, fierce combatant."


	5. The Story of Aglæca

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aglæca's backstory and some more info on Sparda too.

June 22nd  
A week has passed since the gang first discovered Aglæca. During that time, Dante stayed in Fortuna rather than returning to his shop. Lady and Trish were more than happy to take the jobs, and money, he would've gotten, so there wasn't an issue with who would take of things while Dante was away. Since he needed somewhere to stay, the Order allowed him to take up residence in one of their member rooms. As Nero explained to him, due to the Savior incident, the Order had cleaned out and furnished several old storage rooms so that their members could have somewhere to stay if their house had been damaged. The only catch with these rooms is that at least two members had to share a room to save space. Of course, they'd have their own bed, but they'd still have to deal with sharing the rest of the room. Luckily for Dante, Nero decided to bunk with him. He figured it would be best to stay at headquarters rather than going home each night, just in case Aglæca tried to escape during the night. Kyrie wasn't very happy with his decision, but agreed that it was probably safer if Nero stayed at headquarters. 

“Do you think we should do it today or wait a little longer?” Nero was sitting on his bed, slowly and carefully cleaning Blue Rose. Nothing exciting had happened in the past week, so even though he hadn't used her in a while and had already cleaned Blue Rose a couple times before, cleaning her again at least gave him something to do for a while. Meanwhile, Dante was laying down on his bed that was on the other side of the room. He had his head propped up with a pillow and had his legs crossed as he read a magazine. Dante preferred to occupy his time with reading instead of repetitively cleaning his weapons.

“I'm flattered, but I don't think your girl would like that very much.” Dante smirked behind his magazine.

Nero looked up from his gun to look at Dante, shooting him a glare. “I meant if we should go ahead and question Aglæca today or wait a couple more days.” 

Dante shrugged. “He should be feeling good enough to talk. Probably not as strong as he could be, but it'll take a few months before he's back to how he used to be.” Nero took a few seconds to think about what to do.

“Well, I'm going to go see if he's willing to talk.” He stood up from his bed, putting Blue Rose inside her holster on his waist. Nero opened up his bedside table's drawer and grabbed out a small device from it.

“Have fun.” 

“Whad'ya mean? You're coming with me.” Dante looked over at Nero.

“What, can't handle it by yourself?” Dante teased.

“No, I can. But it's always better to have some extra muscle come too.” 

“Oh, so now you're looking at my muscles?” He chuckled to himself as he sat up and swung his legs off of the side of the bed. “Calm down, I know what you meant.” Dante said before Nero could say anything, able to tell that he was about to get defensive. He tossed the magazine onto the bed and stood up. Nero just sighed and shook his head, probably in disbelieve that he agreed to bunk with Dante since it meant they were forced to be around each other more often. He headed out of the room and towards the staircase that led down to the basement with Dante following behind him. Once they got to the basement, they could see that Jack and Willow had found a table and put it up against Aglæca's cell bars. Jack and Willow were outside of his cell, sitting around the table with playing cards in their hands. Aglæca was sitting on a chair inside his cell, though he was beside the bars that had the table on the other side. He was sticking his arms through the gaps in the bars with playing cards in his hand as well. Nero looked at them with utter disbelief.

“Are you serious? You taught him how to play cards?” Dante could be heard laughing behind him.

Jack looked behind himself to look at Nero. They didn't notice Dante or Nero had come into the basement. “Well... I mean... we needed three people to play... and he offered to play with us..” Jack and Willow looked and acted like they were kids caught doing something bad.

“It is quite fun. They never had such games before I was sealed away.” Aglæca's voice had changed tremendously. After a week of resting, healing, and regaining strength, his voice went from sounding fragile and soft to deep and intimidating, much like how a demon is stereotypically supposed to sound. His previously cracked and weak-looking skin had healed and now looked tougher. It looked like he had even gained some weight. Overall, he looked much healthier, and as a result, more of a threat than before. 

“Well, since you're feeling well enough to play games, I guess I can assume you feel good enough to talk about what happened to you?”

“Oh yes, I am ready. I must warn you though, it's a long story.” Aglæca put his cards down onto the table. He stood up from his chair, then grabbed the chair and placed it in front of his bed. He sat down on his bed in front of the chair.

“That's why I have this.” Nero held up the device he had grabbed from his room. He grabbed the keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door.

“Can we go in?” Willow asked anxiously.

“No, just me and Dante. It's not like you won't hear anything if you're not in with us.” Nero had a good point, the entire cell was made up of metal bars. There were no solid walls. He walked into Aglæca's cell, then closed the door once Dante was inside as well. Nero sat down on the chair in front of Aglæca while Dante leaned up against one of the bars, since there wasn't another chair for him to sit in. 

“What is that?” Aglæca pointed to the device in Nero's hand.

“This is a voice recorder. I probably won't remember everything you say later on, so instead of asking you the same questions over and over again, I'll just listen to what was recorded.” Nero turned on the voice recorder and handed it to Aglæca for him to look at.

“Interesting... It sounds very useful.” Aglæca examined the recorder with a child's interest.

“It is. So, tell me, why did we find you sealed away in a crypt?” Jack and Willow put their cards down and turned their chairs towards them.

“My brothers sealed me away. They found out about my intentions and turned the people of this city against me.”

“Who were your brothers? And what were your intentions?”

“My brothers were Canicus and Nicephorus. They are my elder brothers, with Canicus being the eldest of the three of us. I had intended to rally the townspeople and seal my brothers away with their aid. Unfortunately, it seems they had the same idea and began spreading false rumors about me. By the time I realized these rumors had come from them and that my life was in danger, it was too late to escape. They cornered me and, well.. I suppose you can guess the rest of the story.”

“And why did you want to seal them away?” 

“They had become corrupted. Originally, my brothers and I were neither good nor bad. We only wanted to live. Though, we were born in a much different time. A demon's goal was not to do harm to mankind then. Our goal was to make an empire stronger than the one our ancestors were banished from. In other words, we only wanted to make the underworld stronger than Heaven. When I was young, it had only been a couple millenniums since the first angels fell, including Satan himself-”

“Do you mean Mundus?” Nero interrupted.

“The devil has many names. But yes, one of his names is Mundus. Back then, we were still a very weak race. We had unimaginable powers, but no idea how to use them to our advantage.”

“Powers? What powers do you have then?” 

“I'm capable of many things. Most notably, I'm able to show others past events through my memories. I can also collect the memories of others. Not always a very useful talent in battle, but few demons remain who have this ability.” Aglæca explained before continuing his story. “Several thousand years after my birth, we had become a powerful and feared race. My brothers and I thought that once we achieved the power our leader, Mundus, sought after, we would try to make the world a better place, like how Mundus had preached that he would do better than God when he was banished all those years ago. We were appalled when we were instead told to corrupt, enslave, kill, and generally harm the human race. He told us it was the only way to eliminate the Heavens.” Aglæca paused to take in a deep breath. “Over the years, the three of us had worked with and even lived with humans. We couldn't imagine bringing harm to such an innocent race that did not deserve to get tangled in our own personal grudges. So, we hid ourselves away from our own kind. A very cowardly thing to do, but we did not think we would stand a chance against the armies of the underworld. Then, Sparda came along. He was a truly marvelous man.”

“Man? Why do you call a demon a man?”

“Because that is exactly why he was marvelous. No demon of his power and strength had ever openly renounced his heritage before. He was the only one who had the courage to first stand up against Mundus. Though, I'm sure you've heard the tales of his heroism before.” 

“Yes... Many, many times.” Nero said irritably. Him growing up in Fortuna meant that the legend of Sparda and anything having to do with him was deeply engrained into his head. Aglæca chuckled quietly to himself, Willow and Jack had told him about how the town worships Sparda. He figured the townspeople knew very well about Sparda and that hearing the same story over and over again got old really quickly.

“Most, however, don't know of those who helped him.” Dante turned his attention away from an annoying hangnail he had and instead focused on the conversation between the two. He apparently had some interest in what Aglæca was saying now.

“That's because he didn't get help.” After all, one of the main reasons the legend of Sparda is so well known is because he did it all by himself. Or at least, that's what Nero thought.

“Maybe not in doing the dirty work of slaying Mundus' armies and sealing Mundus away, but he did get help. Demons, humans, even an angel helped his noble cause. You can't win everything with brute force, some fights can only be won with precise planning. Sparda knew this. So he made plenty of allies before actually beginning his revolt. He did the slaying and dealt with the underworld as the others dealt with, well.. pretty much everything else. Including defending the human realm while Sparda was away, though that was mostly Cælestis' job. After all, many demons were dwelling among humans by this point. Once the rebellion started, Sparda knew they would go haywire and that somebody needed to be around to slay them if needed.”

“Why aren't they included in the legends then?” 

“Most of them did their work in secrecy. Sparda wanted nobody to die for him, so instead of making it known that they were helping him, which would have put their lives in immediate danger, he decided hiding any evidence of their help would be best and would hopefully spare their lives. Though, eventually the underworld found out others were helping him anyways and killed them one by one. Without their sacrifice, I don't think he could have done what he did.”

“Are you able to name any names of who helped?”

“Well, there were hundreds of beings who aided him. The two who helped him the most were perhaps Publius Vergilius Maro and Cælestis. Or, for the sake of simplicity, Vergilius and Cælestis. I'm sure you know of Vergilius, he was a poet and his great works promised to be known for centuries, if not forever. Sparda met him when we was still young and unknown as a poet. He was an extremely bright man. I'm not exactly sure how they became acquainted or how Vergilius found out who Sparda really was, but I do know he agreed to help Sparda. He planned out the majority of Sparda's attack plans and it was him who found out how to seal Temen-ni-gru. Unfortunately, Canicus cut his life short and Vergilius was not given the honor of seeing Sparda succeed.”

“Wait, so, your brothers had already gone against you at this point? And I thought Vergilius died of fever?”

“I apologize, I should've clarified better. Canicus killing Vergilius was when he betrayed Sparda and I. We had allied with Sparda long ago, but something, or somebody, corrupted them. Sparda had noticed they were not acting like themselves months before Vergilius' death, but he didn't think it was anything serious. When Vergilius was weakened with fever, Canicus drained him of his remaining strength. This left no blood, and so it was labeled that he died by fever since it was known he was sick before his death. Canicus and Nicephorus left a note to Sparda before they disappeared. The note told about how they no longer allied themselves with him and how they had killed Vergilius. Sparda was distraught by his death for several months. After that, they would show up periodically, usually only to kill somebody that they found out was helping Sparda. I had finally tracked them down in this town and tried to convince them I betrayed Sparda and wanted to join them again, but I must not have been very convincing.”

Willow had a strained look on his face from thinking hard. “Oh, OH! That's why Dante's brother is named Vergil!” He jumped out of his chair from excitement with this realization. Nero looked over at Willow.

“Congratulations! You figured out what everybody else was thinking!” Nero's words were practically dripping in sarcasm. Willow crossed his arms childishly as he sat back down.

“I'm a little slow sometimes, you don't gotta be so mean about it...” Willow mumbled. Nero couldn't help but snicker at Willow's ability to be childish during a serious conversation.

“Brother? Sparda had two sons?” Aglæca eyed Dante curiously. “Where is your brother?”

“I think he's in the underworld still. It's kinda a long story.” Dante didn't really feel like explaining the whole story of his brother, he figured there was enough story telling going on already. Aglæca looked very confused, unsure of what exactly Dante meant.

“Basically, his brother went all evil and tried to undo the spell-thing in Temen-ni-gru to get his father's powers, but it didn't work out for him and he ended up falling into some mystical hell portal thing.” Jack tried to summarize Vergil's story to Aglæca. “That's pretty accurate, right?”

Nero rubbed the bridge of his nose with his hand to physically show just how wrong Jack's summarization was. “I suppose that's good enough for now.” Jack looked proud of himself after that, ignoring Nero's obvious distaste of his explanation to Aglæca.

“Anyways, you mentioned somebody else. I think you said their name was Cælestis.” Nero reminded Aglæca.

“Oh yes, Cælestis. Out of everybody who helped Sparda, Cælestis sacrificed the most. Her story is a bit hard to explain. It would be easiest if I showed you.”

“Showed us? Through your memories? Um, do we need to, like... touch your arm or something? So you can transport us or however your ability works..?” At first, Aglæca looked confused. Then he burst out in laughter.

“No no, no touching is required. So long as I have your names, I'm able to show you my memories, no matter where you are at.” Aglæca said once his laughter had subsided. 

“That's so cool. Man, why can't humans have powers like that?” Willow complained. 

“You have abilities of your own, whether you realize it or not.” Aglæca stood up from his bed. “Is everybody prepared?” After a quick glance around the room and seeing each person nod their heads in agreement, Aglæca began the process of transporting them into his memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anybody interested in knowing, Canicus means "born of fire", Nicephorus means "victory-bearer", and Cælestis means "heavenly". I spent a good amount of time picking names, since I can be picky with names. Which, I suppose, isn't a bad thing.


	6. Cælestis's Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some backstory on Cælestis!

One second, they were in Aglæca's cell. The next, they were on a flat area of a mountain. The area they were in had some snow, but was mostly dirt and grass drenched in melted snow. There was a slab of stone that resembled a table on the edge of the mountain, overlooking the ground below. Nero, Willow, and Jack fell backwards and onto the ground since they no longer had a chair underneath them. They hit the ground with a pained groan. Dante stumbled backwards a bit, but was spared from actually falling since he was previously leaning against the cell wall instead of sitting down in a chair, like the others were. Aglæca was the only one who did not stumble or fall. He knew he needed to stand up before transporting into his memories and had done so beforehand. Aglæca looked around himself, he looked at Nero, who was now grasping his likely bruised tailbone with a pained expression, then he looked at Willow, who had fallen flat onto his back and seemed scared to stand back up, then finally he looked at Jack, who had panicked as soon as he realized he was falling and had managed to twist his body around, causing him to fall onto his stomach. 

“Oh, my apologizes. I should've warned you that objects will not follow us here.” Aglæca said nonchalantly. 

“Yeah, you should've, it would've been nice to not fall flat on my ass!” Nero complained. 

“Aw, did you get hurt?” Dante, who by this point had regained his balance, patronized. He held out a hand to Nero, offering to help him stand up. Nero took Dante's hand with his free hand, his other hand still being reluctant to move away from his tailbone, and stood up with his help.

“I think I broke my tailbone...” Nero complained as he rubbed his sore spot.

“Bad news for your boyfriend.” Jack teased as he got off of his stomach and onto his hands and knees, then stood up. He went over to help Willow stand up. Dante raised an eyebrow at Nero in confusion. Nero in turn looked over at Dante, able to feel that he was looking at him. He gave him an equally confused looked for a second, then realized what Dante was confused about.

“Oh, in middle school, my best friend came out as gay. Since we hung out so much somebody eventually asked me if he was my boyfriend. I said no, but apparently I acted really nervous so nobody believed me.” Nero explained. 

“Apparently? You were shaking and stuttering like you were guilty of murder!” Jack was snickering as he spoke, then he and Jack started laughing, probably reliving the scene in their heads. 

“I didn't know they were going to ask me something like that! How the hell are you supposed to react?!” Nero defended himself. He looked at Dante again, doing his best to ignore the two laughing. “He moved away years ago though and I haven't spoken to him since then, so I'm not sure who exactly my supposed 'boyfriend' is now.”

“Don't worry, you'll find him eventually.” Dante gave him a teasing smile and patted him on his shoulder in a fake attempt to comfort him. Nero went to say something that would've likely been laced with cuss words back at Dante, but Willow suddenly stopped laughing and silenced everybody else by loudly “Shhhh”-ing. Nero, Dante, and Jack all looked at Willow to see what the fuss was about. Willow pointed out towards something in front of them. 

A man was approaching them. He wore a white and gold toga. The style of the toga wasn't really fancy, but it was clear that the common person wouldn't wear that type of toga. His hair was short, curly, and brown, appropriately matching his dark brown eyes. His worn look betrayed his young-looking facial features. He held and was reading a scroll of paper as he walked. 

“Who's that?” Jack whispered to Aglæca, not wanting to attract the attention of the unknown person. Aglæca smiled as he watched the man approach. 

“That is perhaps the most well-known Roman poet in history, Vergilius Maro. Don't worry, nobody can see or hear us. We didn't travel back in time, we're just observing my memories. You could even go up to him and he won't respond to you.” As Aglæca spoke, Vergilius walked up to the stone slab and placed the scroll down, though he continued to read it. 

“Wow...” Nero watched the man with awe. Jack looked over at Nero with amusement.

“You got a man crush goin' on over there, Nero?” Jack teased. Nero shot him a brief glare.

“You're telling me you're not amazed to see a famous poet who lived and died over two thousand years ago?”

“Well... I mean... yeah...” Jack admitted.

“Then shut up.” Nero resumed watching Vergilius.

“Aren't these your memories? Where're you at?” Dante asked Aglæca after looking around the area and deciding he couldn't find Aglæca's past self.

“I collected these memories from Vergilius after he died. I was off doing something else right now.” Aglæca explained.

“You can collect memories from the dead..?” Nero asked.

“The freshly dead. He had been dead for only an hour when I found him.” Aglæca explained with a sad undertone to his voice. After that, everybody stayed quiet and waited for something to happen. Without warning, an armored and quite scary-looking demon walked through Nero and Dante as if he was a ghost walking through them. Nero was very startled by this, causing him to jump back by quite a lot, accidentally making his back run into Dante's chest. Though, Dante is like a brick wall and didn't budge or lose his balance from the impact. He chuckled at Nero's sudden fright. 

“Holy shit, what was that?!” Nero breathed deeply to calm himself down. He watched as the demon walked towards Vergilius.

“Sparda.” Aglæca replied simply. “Before he had a human form, of course.” Sparda walked to Vergilius' side and read over the scroll he was reading.

“How is your research going? Have you found anything?” Sparda inquired as he read.

“Yes, I have exciting news! That tower, the thing that is the main portal between the human and demon realm?” Vergilius couldn't remember the name of the tower.

“Temen-ni-gru?” Sparda suggested.

“Yes, that one! The books were calling it several different names... but I have found a way to permanently seal it!”

“Permanently? I didn't think that was a possibility..” Sparda looked stunned. “What do we need to do?”

“Well, it's no simple task. I have the plans laid out on here, you can study it if you wish.” Vergilius took out another scroll of paper from inside his toga. He handed it to Sparda, who took it from Vergilius and examined its contents. An ominous group of clouds suddenly formed in the distance, though neither Vergilius nor Sparda took notice. Within seconds after forming, the group of clouds morphed into one big storm cloud. The large cloud spit out lightning from all of its sides, though instead of touching the ground, the lightning strikes dispersed soon after leaving the cloud. Sparda looked away from his scroll to look at the cloud. He studied it with his eyes in both curiosity and caution.

“I've never seen a cloud form like that... is that normal?” Vergilius looked towards the cloud as well and was visibly stunned that it was there.

“No, not in my experience. It could've been hiding behind the mountain, where it would've been out of sight.” With this explanation, they both went back to looking at the scroll Sparda held, no longer concerned about the cloud. However, the cloud began to grow and stretch across the sky as it moved closer to them. A deafeningly loud crack echoed across the sky, causing Sparda and Vergilius to shift their attention to the cloud formation again. Immediately following the noise, something appeared to fly out of the cloud. The force of gravity and friction caused the object to catch fire as it descended towards the earth. This alarmed Sparda, though Vergilius did not appear to be startled.

“It's just a meteor, don't worry. It'll destroy itself before it can reach land.” Veriligus said to put Sparda at ease. Nonetheless, they both watched the meteor head towards the ground. Neither of them realized that the meteor never shrank in size as it grew ever closer towards the ground, as what should happen with a fairly small meteor like this one. They also didn't realize that the meteor was headed straight towards them until it only seconds away from impacting the mountain.

“Move, move! It's going to hit us!” Vergilius quickly jumped behind the stone table and couched down in an attempt to shield himself from the debris the meteor will kick up. Sparda quickly joined him behind the table.

The meteor impacted the ground near where Vergilius and Sparda once stood. Once the air was clear of the dirt and rocks and it was now possible to see again, it was revealed that the meteor was not an ordinary hunk of space rock, but a person clad in white armor that was still red-hot from being on fire. The armor shined with an indescribable radiance, despite it being late in the day with night quickly approaching. The sheer amount of steel and the fact that no skin could be seen on the person gave them an aura of intimidation. The person was even wearing a cloth hood to conceal their face. The shape and size of the armor gave the impression that the person underneath was male. In their hand was a sword. The handle of the sword was intricately designed with symbols that were clearly not of human, or even demon, origin. The pommel of the sword's handle was in the shape of a hawk's head. The blade of the sword was simple and designed for efficiency rather than for looks. The person stood up from their previously kneeling position and silently scanned the area around them. 

After a few seconds of peace, Sparda slowly began to stand up from behind the stone table. He wasn't afraid of the being, he was only being cautious since he didn't know what their intentions were. Once Sparda was visible, the person directed its attention to him. They stared down one another as Sparda walked around the table to approach the person. In the blink of an eye, the tip of the being's sword was at his throat, though Sparda did not look very alarmed.

“Sparda, you are under arrest by the Divine Counsel for your crimes against humanity.” Their voice was harsh and there was a slight echo after they spoke. They didn't have a very deep voice, however they didn't really need a deep voice to sound authoritative. “Your punishment is execution.” Vergilius poked his head out from behind the stone table to see what was going on.

“Crimes? What crimes?” When the person didn't respond, Sparda continued to talk. “I'm not going without a fight.”

“You may be a master swordsman in the demonic realm, but you are no match for an archangel. Besides that, you are unarmed. What can a swordsman do without his beloved sword?” The archangel taunted. He spread out his large, white bird-like wings to intimidate the demon. Just as it looked like a bloody fight was about to ensure, Vergilius stood up from behind the table and spoke up.

“Wait, hold on one moment! I would like to know what he's being accused of doing. If you won't tell him, then please tell me.” Vergilius looked partially afraid. He wasn't the type of person to speak out, but he wasn't going to let his friend be taken away without an explanation.

“I do not know the details of what he has been doing. But I have been watching him closely. He's been gaining human followers and planning something. Whatever it is he is doing, it is not going to end well. He is a demon and cannot be trusted. That is all the proof I need to have him executed.” The archangel did not take his eyes off of Sparda as he spoke.

“I see, I see... Who are you then? I've never known an angel to be dressed so heavily in battle gear.” 

“I am Cælestis. I am an archangel who's duty is to protect humanity from the filth that manages to escape the underworld-” “Well you're doing a fine job. Just last week I heard of some poor soul dying at the hands of a 'mysterious man' with 'red eyes'.” Sparda interrupted. 

“Silence!” Clearly, the archangel was not happy with being rudely interrupted. “That is not my job. My job is to eliminate any potential threats to humanity. Meaning, I don't kill the meaningless, unintelligent pawns of Mundus. I kill the ones who threaten to harm humanity as a whole, such as yourself.” Cælestis dug the tip of his sword deeper into Sparda's skin.

“No no, you've got it all wrong. Sparda is planning on sealing off the portal between the human and demon worlds. He doesn't want to hurt anybody.” Vergilius tried to explain.

“Mortal, can you not see that he is playing you for a fool? He is a demon, the only goal a demon has in his pathetic life is to cause destruction.”

“Look, I'll show you what he's been planning.” Vergilius walked out from behind the table and walked over to Sparda. Sparda handed him the scroll that he had been tightly holding in his hand. Vergilius, in turn, offered the scroll to Cælestis. The angel hesitated, but eventually lowered his sword away from Sparda's throat. He took the scroll from Vergilius and looked it over for a couple of minutes before looking back up at them.

“This is a ritual to seal Temen-ni-gru, the main demon portal.” The archangel sounded surprised. Vergilius nodded.

“Yes, I plan to seal off Temen-ni-gru and defeat Mundus. After that, I will seal the other, smaller portals scattered around the world.” Sparda finally spoke.

“This is an impossible task. You will have literally every demon alive looking to kill you.” Cælestis warned.

“No, not every demon. There is a surprising amount of demons who are on my side. I can take on Mundus and his armies in the underworld. It will be difficult, but it is possible. My main concern right now is who will defend the humans while I am away. They are a strong race, but there will be plenty of demons here in the human realm that will take advantage of the chaos that will be happening in the underworld.”

“You said there are demons who are helping you. Can they not control their own kind?”

“I'm afraid it might not be enough. It's hard to defend the entire world with only a few dozen demons who have offered to help.” Cælestis looked over Sparda for a minute or two, as if looking for physical evidence that he is lying. 

“I will be watching you. If you are speaking the truth and you wish to save humanity from demons, then we fight for the same cause. If I determine that your intentions are indeed true, I will offer my assistance to you.”

“I thought I had been sentenced to death?” 

“You have been, but I am temporarily suspending your execution. Don't even think about running away or hiding if you have been untruthful this entire time. I won't hesitate to track you down in hell.” With that, Cælestis disappeared, leaving behind a cloud of smoke. Vergilius and Sparda exchanged glances at each other, likely trying to comprehend what had just happened.

“Wait, so, he was able to just appear and disappear as he pleases? Does that mean he was just being dramatic with the whole cloud and falling to the earth thing?” Jack asked Aglæca, now that the scene was over. Aglæca chuckled to himself.

“Yes. Cælestis liked to surprise her enemies by being overly dramatic. She could've very easily just appeared behind Sparda and killed him right then and there. But, despite her intimidating appearance and her supposed hatred for demons, she believed good is possible in all creatures. She always preferred to give the benefit of the doubt before actually killing anybody, like she did with Sparda.” He explained to Jack.

“Hey, Dante, did you ever realize how much you're like your dad?” Nero looked back at Dante.

“What're you talking about?” 

“You didn't noticed how cocky he was? He's standing there, with a sword to his throat, and he ridicules an angel for not doing their job.”

“Huh. I didn't notice.” Dante didn't really like being compared to his father. It's not that he disliked the man, he just didn't personally know him well enough to really say if he is or isn't like him.

“I'm so going to rub it in my brother's face that I got to see Sparda..” Willow quietly said to himself.

“There is another memory I'd like you to see.” Aglæca told them.

“Brace yourselves, nobody sit down!” Jack announced to the others, then tightly wrapped his arms around Willow dramatically. 

Within a couple seconds, they had left the mountain scene and were now in a field. Around them were isolated patches of fire, along with the dead bodies of several demons and a couple humans. It was nighttime, adding to the depressing effect the scene had. Near to them was a group of humans and demons. Some were standing, others had decided to sit down on large rocks or the ground. A few of them had torches, enabling Aglæca and the others to see what was going on. In the middle of the group of humans and demons sat Sparda. He was riddled with wounds ranging from a scratch to deep gouges. He had his eyes closed and was breathing heavily.

“Keep an eye on him. I'm going to round up any remaining survivors.” Cælestis, who had been kneeling beside Sparda, said to past Aglæca. Past Aglæca had been standing on Sparda's other side. He looked much bigger, taller, and stronger than how he now is. It was almost as if they were two completely different people. Cælestis stood up and began to walk away from the group once past Aglæca had nodded to him. Once he was just a few feet away from the group, a loud voice that seemed to come from the sky yelled out his name. Cælestis immediately stopped walking. He looked around and raised his sword to prepare for the worst. Before he had time to react, somebody had appeared in front of him and disarmed him of his sword. The new person had on a similar attire to Cælestis and had a sword similar to his. The main difference between the two was that this other angel had grey wings, while Cælestis had white wings. The being tossed Cælestis' sword away from him, then raised their own sword towards him. They stood there for a few seconds in silence. 

“You know why I'm here.” This new angel's voice was deep, but soft. Cælestis raised up his hands to show he wasn't going to attack.

“Please, this doesn't have to be done. Does the Divine Counsel not see the good that has come from me aiding this man who was unfortunate enough to be born a demon?” Cælestis pleaded.

“All they see is one of their members has been helping a demon. Betrayal, that is all they see. You told us you were merely watching and ensuring the demon wasn't harming humans. You had already gone against our direct order to kill him, but the Divine Counsel tolerated it. They will not tolerate an elite archangel helping a powerful demon.”

“Not even if it is for the greater good?”

“There is no good in a demon, according to the Counsel.”

“Then explain to me why Temen-ni-gru has been closed by a demon. A demon would have nothing to gain and everything to lose for closing that portal. Can't the Counsel put aside their petty rivalries and accept that not all demons are bad?” When Cælestis was met with silence from the other angel, he continued to speak. “I have been advocating the closing of that portal ever since it was constructed! Is it not our goal to protect the innocent human race? Is that not what we live for?”

“You know as much as I do that we are not allowed to directly influence or mingle with humans.” Cælestis clenched his fists in anger at the other angel's response.

“You're telling me we were supposed to stand idly by while the demons were overrunning the earth? If that is so, how are we any better than demons? Doing nothing is the same as aiding those who are evil. We are taught from the moment we are born that we are the 'good guys'. We are suppose help the innocent and punish those who are evil. Now we help those who are evil and punish the innocent.” He took in a deep breath. “If you are here to kill me, at least I will die with no regrets.” Cælestis kneeled down in front of the angel and lowered his head, preparing himself for execution.

“No... the Counsel has decided a different punishment. One that they said would be more... fitting.” Cælestis looked up at the angel, obviously not knowing what he meant.

“I'm sorry, Cælestis. You have been a brave warrior and if it wasn't for you, I'm not sure the Heavens would still be intact. You have fought and won many battles in the name of the Divine Counsel, but... the Counsel has decided you will live out your life as a fallen angel.” Cælestis instantly stood up from his kneeling position and backed away a few paces in fear.

“I don't get it.. what's so bad about being a fallen angel?” Jack asked Aglæca.

“A fallen angel is a fancy name for a demon.” Nero answered for Aglæca, who nodded in agreement with him.

“Oh shit. That must suck..” Jack said, mostly to himself.

 

After a few seconds, Cælestis stood up straight and no longer seemed afraid. “If I am to be cast down for aiding a demon who saved humanity, then it shall be done by my own hand.” Cælestis reached up to the hood covering his head and pulled it back, revealing his face. With this, it was revealed that he was actually a she. She had a very beautiful and very feminine face. An angel is not supposed to reveal his or her identity, or rather, their face. To do so means being cast down from the Heavens and becoming a fallen angel. Her hair was long, slightly wavy, and pure white. Her eyes were a baby blue. Despite her feminine appearance, it was easy to tell that she isn't the kind of woman you could push around. 

Sparda, who had been watching what was going on but couldn't do anything about it due to his current state, looked over at past Aglæca. “Did you know he was a she??” He sounded and looked very surprised. Past Aglæca shook his head no, he was clearly quite surprised as well. Cælestis' armor began to vanish after she had revealed her face, leaving behind a simple cloth shirt and pants that had been previously worn underneath her armor. 

“If it had been my decision, I wouldn't have left you to such a terrible fate.. I will allow you to keep your sword. I hope you do not allow this to diminish your bravery or passion for battle. One day, when the Council decides aiding demons, so long as their intentions are good, is no longer a crime, I would be honored if you would allow me to fight by your side once more. Until then, I wish you well.” After an approving nod from Cælestis, the angel disappeared and left behind a cloud of smoke. For a few minutes, Cælestis did not move from the spot she stood in. Then, she walked to where the angel had thrown her sword. She picked it up and rested the blade of her sword on her shoulder. She then turned towards the stunned group of people who had been quietly watching the scene unfolded. They all stared at her. She furrowed her eyebrows at them.

“What're you looking at? Can't an angel be cast down by her brethren without being stared at?” Her voice now took on a more feminine sound, though she still sounded aggressive. 

Suddenly, Aglæca and the rest of them were no longer in the field. They were now back in Aglæca's cell. They stood in silence, trying to take in what they had just seen.

“..I have a question. What made Cælestis finally trust Sparda?” Jack questioned Aglæca.

“She saw how he mourned Vergilius' death. He was alone, but an archangel can see anything from the Heavens, no matter where they are. She had never seen a demon cry, especially not over a human, and realized that he wasn't a normal demon. I guess she figured any demon who mourns can be trusted.”

“Well, I mean.. that was very interesting and cool to see, but what exactly was the point of showing us? Couldn't you have just told us that Cælestis was an angel who helped Sparda and was turned into a demon for helping him?” Nero questioned Aglæca.

“I thought it would've been nice for you to see your mother in her glory days. She was still a magnificent fighter after that, but she was never able to fully adjust to being a demon.” Aglæca explained. Nero looked incredibly confused.

“My mother? That's not my mom.” This caused Aglæca to laugh, though he quickly stopped when he realized Nero was being serious.

“I.. I thought you knew. Is Cælestis no longer alive...?” 

“I was an orphan. I don't know who my parents are.” Nero explained. Aglæca looked very sad and empathetic as he looked at Nero.

“I'm very sorry to hear this... She was such a wonderful person. There is no doubt in my mind that you are her son. You are very much like her from what I've seen. She was very hot headed, not afraid to speak her mind, and she preferred to do things herself.”

“So? Anybody can have those traits.” Nero sounded skeptical. Aglæca smiled at him.

“That is exactly what Cælestis would have said. Besides the physical and personality similarities, I can smell her blood within you, just as I am able to smell Sparda's blood within Dante. All full blooded demons are able to identify other demons and their offspring by their smell.” Aglæca explained.

“This doesn't make sense though. I thought he was Vergil's kid? Why else would his blood have awoken that monster that Sanctus made, since it required Sparda's blood?” Jack spoke up. Nero glared at Jack, he didn't exactly like being called the son of an evil man.

“Well, in order for Sparda to get a human form, he had to have a sample of human genetics. Usually demons will do this by killing a person, but Sparda didn't do that. Cælestis gave Sparda a sample of her genetics so that he could have a human form. I think she gave him a strand of her hair, or maybe it was some blood... I don't really remember. They explained it to me, but it was a really complicated process. But anyways, Sparda would've had her base genes. He modified the genes extensively to fit his needs, but he still would've had a bit of her genes mixed in. So, with that in mind, Nero likely has blood that has similarities to Sparda's. Not nearly enough to say he's actually related to Sparda, but enough to where something that requires Sparda's blood to work would be stimulated to operate. Probably not for very long though.” 

Nero smirked victoriously. “See? I told you I wasn't his kid.” 

“There's always the possibility your mom slept with Vergil.” Willow smirked.

“There is no way my mother would've had such bad taste in men!” Nero said defensively. Willow just laughed.

“What do you got against him being your father? I mean, if he was your father, that means Dante's your uncle. I'd kill to have an uncle as fun as him.” Nero looked over at Dante, who had been quiet for some time now.

“What do you think?” Nero asked him.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I'd love to have me as an uncle.” Dante smirked, earning him a chuckle from Nero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me forever to figure out how to explain Nero's parentage without taking the obvious route but yet still be able to explain why Nero was able to awaken the Savior. And when I say forever, I mean I first started to try and figure something out several months before I even posted the first chapter. I hope it makes sense and doesn't sound too crazy! By the way, archangels are different from regular angels. I found this out about a year ago while researching demons and angels for this story. Angels are meant to be fairly peaceful beings who watch over specific people, but archangels are suppose to pretty much be the fighters and guardians of Heaven. Things that normally would be considered a sin don't seem to apply to them. I always thought of all angels being these soft, peaceful beings, but it makes sense that somebody would have to be able to fight if needed.
> 
> Here's a more detailed explanation on Nero's parentage:  
> The best way I can put it is that Caelestis' genetics is "A". Sparda, since he was born a demon and so had no unique human genetic code of his own, used Caelestis' genes, "A", as a building block for his own genetics. Meaning, he took "A" and changed it enough to where it became uniquely his genes, but still had small amounts of "A" in it. So, Sparda's blood is "aB", with the lowercase "A" just meaning that "A" blood is still present, but not in large amounts. This would mean that certain traits, such as the white hair and blue eyes, and certain basic genetic codes essential to function could've remained unchanged if Sparda chose to leave it that way. Nero, being Caelestis' son, would have "AC" blood, with the blood "C" coming from his father. This means that Sparda and Nero have at least some similar genetics, since "A" is present in both of their genes. It wouldn't be nearly enough to say that Nero is closely related to Sparda, but it's enough to where things that require Sparda's blood may briefly work with Nero's blood. But, for example, he wouldn't be able to open Temen-ni-gru since it requires a lot of Sparda's blood and probably needs the complete genetic code that Sparda had. Which is why his sons, who would be "aBD", with the "D" being their mother's blood, would be able to open Temen-ni-gru, since they have the complete "aB" code from Sparda and not just the "A" code that Caelestis and Nero have.


	7. Festival of the Sword Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some dancing, some drinking, a tinge of romance, perhaps?

July 7th  
Dante had left the day after Aglæca had revealed his secrets to them to return to his shop. Apparently, in his absence, dozens of jobs had popped up and Dante wasn't allowed a day off until today. It was as if local demons knew Lady and Trish were alone at the shop and knew the girls couldn't keep up if they all decided to wreak havoc while Dante was away. Once things got back to normal, Dante decided to take a couple days break in Fortuna. The women disapproved of this, nagging him about “what if something happens again and you're not here,” but Dante figured they can handle the shop for a couple days. Besides, he had been on the job almost all day ever since he came back. He deserved a couple days to relax. So, as soon as he had managed to get his butt out of bed, he headed straight for Fortuna. By the time he arrived in the small town, it was already 3 o'clock in the afternoon. 

Dante opened the door that led into the Order's headquarters. After so many visits to Fortuna, the Order members told Dante he could just walk in from now on, instead of knocking on the door. Dante noticed that the building was suspiciously empty after he had walked inside and closed the front door. He quietly waited for a few seconds to see if he could hear anything. Sure enough, he heard voices coming from a room down the hall. As he got closer to the room, the voices became clearer, since the door had been left open. 

“Ow! You pinched me!” This voice was Jack's.

“Oh you big baby, I barely touched you!” This time Willow spoke.

“Will you two hurry up? We're already behind schedule!” There was no mistaking that this was Nero's voice.

“You're not even done yet!” Jack reminded him. By this time, Dante had made it to the door. He crossed his arms as he watched the scene before him in amusement. In the room, Nero stood in front of a mirror. He had just put on loose, long sleeved button up shirt and was in the process of buttoning the shirt up. He had on a nice pair of tuxedo pants, but no shoes on yet. Willow was fully dressed in his tux. Since he was done, Willow was helping Jack put on his tux jacket. He was struggling to squeeze Jack into the jacket, since clearly it didn't fit him right. 

“That's beside the point.” Nero muttered as he looked over himself in the mirror while buttoning up. Once he had fully buttoned his shirt, he noticed that there was a large red figure standing the doorway that wasn't previously there. “Oh, hey Dante! I didn't know you were coming today.” He smiled at him as he gestured to him that he could enter the room.

“Yeah, I finally got everything done at the shop, so the girl's let me have a couple days off.” Dante explained as uncrossed his arms. He walked through the doorway and into the room.

“They let you or you whined until they gave in?” Nero teased. “Well anyways, you're just in time, we're still getting ready.”

“If you don't quit squirming, I'm never going to get this on you right!” Willow warned Jack, who then stopped moving and stood still. Dante watched the two for a few seconds.

“Getting ready for what?” He looked back at Nero again.

“Did I not tell you? We're having the annual Festival of the Sword dance tonight. The festival was cut short, before the dance could begin, thanks to the whole Sanctus and Savior incident. The area we always have it in was severely damaged and wasn't repaired until last week, so we decided we'd go ahead and finish the festival tonight.” Nero explained. “Well, I didn't decide that... I didn't want to go to the dance at all..” He muttered in annoyance.

“Sucks, doesn't it? You have a girlfriend now so you don't have a choice. You have to go to these things to make her happy now.” Jack teased. Nero just sighed to further show his distaste for the dance.

“At least he has a girlfriend. Haven't you been single for a whole year now?” Willow and Jack then proceeded to bicker at each other.

“I guess I'll come back another day then.” Dante tried to quickly exit the room, but was stopped by Nero firmly grabbing a hold of his upper arm.

“Dante, please? I don't want to be stuck in a room full of stuck up people all night by myself.” Nero begged.

“So you want me to join you in your misery?” Dante joked. “Besides, Kyrie will be there, won't she?” He wouldn't actually mind going, but truthfully, he had never been to a formal dance before and he figured he probably wouldn't like going to one anyways.

“She might be there with me to dance couple times, but she likes to go off with her girlfriends a lot. I'll be left at the table all alone.” Nero tried to guilt Dante into going.

“We'll be there with you.” Willow reminded Nero.

“...As I said, I'll be there all alone.” Nero reiterated.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Jack asked.

“Well, last year you said you were going to the food bar to grab a snack to eat and you two ended up staying over there the entire night.”

“I'm sorry, but that was some good as hell food.” Jack said, then his mind drifted off into his own world, probably thinking about what food they'll have tonight.

“I don't have a date though.” Dante thought up a new excuse.

“I can be your date.” Nero offered. Dante chuckled at him.

“You can't have two dates.” 

“Sure I can! Kyrie is my date whenever she's around and I'm your date whenever she ditches me.” Nero was desperate to not end up sitting alone this year. Dante thought it over for a few seconds, then shook his head in defeat.

“Okay, fine, I'll go.” Dante gave up.

“...Hey Willow, will you be my date?” Jack asked.

“I have a girlfriend, dipstick. I should probably go with her.”

“Well it was worth a shot...”

“You know, you can probably just go with your jacket undone. I don't think anybody will really care.” Nero told Jack. 

“You're telling us this now?!” Willow stopped the great effort he was putting into trying to close the jacket, letting it stay unbuttoned. 

“Oh thank God, I was wondering how I was going to breath...” Jack said in relief.

“Now, we need to find a tux that'll fit Dante.” Nero walked over to one of the room's closest and looked inside it. “Dammit, all that's left is small and extra large..” He said after rummaging through the closet's clothes for a few seconds. Willow looked Dante up and down.

“Extra large is probably good for him.” Willow decided.

“Oh right, he's not scrawny like you two.” Nero teased as he grabbed out an extra large tux. 

“Hey, I have muscle! That's why my jacket doesn't fit..” Jack said muttered to himself. Nero gestured for Dante to come closer to him. Once he had, Nero handed him the tux.

“I can help you put it on.” Nero offered after seeing the confused look on Dante's face after he had looked at the tux. “You at least know how to put on pants by yourself, right?”

“I think I can manage.” Dante joked.

“Good, 'cause I'm sure as hell not helping an old man in his underwear put on pants.” Nero teased, then pointed at the door of one of the empty closets in the room. Dante smirked.

“You say that as if I wear underwear.” He walked over to the closet door. 

“You better be wearing underwear! You're not going commando in a tux at a formal dance!” Dante laughed.

“I was just joking.” Dante walked into the closet and closed the door. After a few minutes, he came out with his usual attire gone. In its place, he wore tux pants and had on the white button up undershirt, but didn't have it buttoned up. He sat down the shoes and the rest of the tux on a nearby chair. Jack not-so-subtly-looked at the exposed part of Dante's chest.

“Whoa, I didn't know Arnold Schwarzenegger was dropping by.” He half-complimented, half joked. Dante chose to smirk rather than to verbally respond.

“No no, Arnold Schwarzenegger has those really big, fake looking muscles. Dante has the kind of muscles that are big but not big enough to look like he took drugs to get them.” Willow argued.

“Hey, Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't do drugs, you're just jealous!”

“Actually, I'm pretty sure he did use steroids sometimes when he was younger.” Willow told Jack. Nero walked over to Dante and started to button up his shirt for him, since Dante hadn't done it himself yet.

“Don't you know how to button up a shirt?” Nero nagged as he buttoned. Jack and Willow argued in the background.

“Yes, dear.” Dante teased, causing Nero to briefly stop buttoning to shoot him an unamused look. After ensuring each button was in its proper place, he grabbed the suit's jacket from the chair and handed it to Dante, who put it on. He went to button it up, but Nero stopped him.

“You have to put on your tie before you can button your jacket.” He automatically started putting Dante's tie on for him, assuming he didn't know how to tie a tie. Willow smiled, having already ended the argument he was having with Jack.

“You're such a doting wife, Nero. It's cute.” 

“You were doing the same for Jack.” Nero reminded him as he tied. 

“Wait a minute, so he's able to joke with you, but when I do it I get a 'look'?” Dante teased. 

“Yup.” Nero smirked. He finished tying Dante's tie, buttoned the jacket, then made sure everything was in place. “Go ahead and put your shoes on now.” He said after deeming everything was proper. As Dante sat down in the chair and put on his shoes, Nero decided to take this time to finish putting on the rest of his tux.

“I don't like how this feels.” Dante complained after he had finished putting on his shoes. He stood up and looked himself over, making sure he didn't look too ridiculous.

“I know. It must be weird to not be completely covered in leather.” Nero bantered. “You look fine. I promise. C'mon, let's go ahead and start heading over there.”

“Isn't it a bit early for that?” Dante asked. He hadn't been keeping track of time, but figured it couldn't be past four.

“No, it's already a bit past 5 o'clock.” Nero pointed at a clock hanging on a nearby wall. Dante looked surprised to find out that it was indeed five o'clock. “The dance starts in about an hour, which is probably how long it'll take us to get there and get settled in.” 

“Huh. Time flies when you're having fun.” Dante said sarcastically. He and the others then followed Nero out of the room. Since the dance hall was just a few blocks away, they chose to walk rather than waiting for somebody to pick them up and take them there. Though it was close, it still took them about 30 minutes to get there. The outside of the dance hall was simple looking. 

“Did they not fix the outside? Just the inside?” Nero asked as he observed the building's exterior.

“Yeah. Most of the designs on the building had been destroyed and they haven't gotten around to repairing them just yet.” Jack told him.

“It looks so sad..” Nero commented before he opened the wooden double doors on the building. The interior of the building was much more lively than the outside. The walls were filled with color and intricate designs while the ceiling was full of light produced by several small chandeliers surrounding one grand chandelier. The grand chandelier hung over what can be assumed to be the dance floor, since expensive-looking wooden tables and chairs surrounded the empty area underneath the chandelier. At the other end of the building, away from the dance floor, there was what appeared to be a food court and an open bar for guests. 

“You can go get a couple drinks after we find the girls.” Nero told Dante, noticing him eyeing the open bar. “But only a couple drinks. I'm not dragging your drunk ass home.” 

“What do they got over there?” Dante asked as he followed Nero towards the tables. Jack and Willow had already left them to go check out the food court. 

“It's mostly fruity stuff. No beer or anything like that.” Nero spotted Kyrie and another woman sitting beside her. “There they are, c'mon.” He led the way to the table the two girls were sitting at. Once they had gotten close enough for Kyrie to notice, she stood up eagerly and hugged Nero tightly once he made it to the table. Dante noticed something... different about her, but he couldn't figure out what was different. She looked the same to him.

“I'm glad you guys made it safely, the dance just started!” Kyrie smiled at Nero. She turned her attention to Dante, who had already sat down at the table. “I'm surprised you came, I didn't think dances were your thing. You look great!” 

“You're not bad looking yourself.” Dante smirked at her. Nero smacked his shoulder with the back of his hand.

“No flirting with my girlfriend!” Nero teased.

“Huh? Was I flirting?” Dante looked genuinely confused as he rubbed his shoulder, pretending as though it actually hurt him.

“The man is such a player that he doesn't even know when he's flirting anymore.” Jack joked as he walked up to the table. He held in his hands a plate full of different kinds of food. He put the plate down on the table and sat down in one of the chairs. Kyrie giggled.

“It's alright, it'd be rude to say I looked bad.” She said to Nero. At that moment, a new slow dancing song came on. “Oh, this is my favorite song! C'mon, let's go dance!” Before he could say anything, Kyrie had already started dragging him towards the dance floor. 

“Has anybody seen Willow?” The woman who had been sitting beside Kyrie asked.

“He's still at the food court, I think.” Jack responded.

“Of course. He has to get food before seeing his girlfriend.” The woman sighed. Jack looked around the room for Willow as he ate.

“Oh, here he comes.” He had spotted Willow heading towards the table. Within a few seconds, he was at the table.

“Hey honey-” “Don't you 'honey' me! Couldn't you dance with me first before you got food?” 

“Well.. I mean... all the good food might be gone if I don't get it as quickly as possible..” Willow said, looking down at the ground. The woman rolled her eyes and huffed at his response.

“C'mon, we might get out there before the song ends.” She grabbed Willow's hand. Willow quickly placed his plate onto the table before he too was dragged out onto the dance floor. Jack chuckled at Willow as he was being dragged away.

“Sometimes I wish I had a girlfriend, then I look at Nero and Kyrie or Willow and his girl and I remember that being in love sucks sometimes.” Jack said. He looked over at Dante. “What about you? You miss being in a relationship?” He asked.

“Well, actually, I've never really been in a relationship.”

“Oh, you a one-night-stand-only type of guy?” 

“Yeah, kinda. It's better that way.”

“I gotcha. You've probably got a pretty big bounty on your head in the underworld thanks to your dad, so anybody who dates you is at risk too, huh? Don't worry though, I'm sure you'll find the perfect girl for you someday.” Jack smiled at him reassuringly. Dante reciprocated his smile, appreciating Jack's attempt to comfort him, though he didn't much need comforting. By this time, the song had ended and Nero had found his way back to the table. “Did you have fun out there?” Jacked teased.

“Yeah, a little bit. I just wish people wouldn't watch, I hate being watched while dancing..” Nero sat down next to Dante. “So what have you two been doing?”

“I was just telling Dante that he'll find that 'special someone' someday.” Jack told him. 

“Yeah, everybody has that one person who's perfect for them. You just gotta look for her.” Nero agreed with Jack.

“Look for her? Wouldn't I know when I see her?” Dante asked. 

“No, not always. Sometimes you start out as friends. But if you're not careful, you won't realize she's the one until she's with somebody else.” Nero explained.

“That's not always true. Sometimes you'll realize she's the one, but you met her while she was already in a relationship. So you never really had a chance in the first place.” Jack added to what Nero said.

“What do you do in that case then?” 

“You wait.” Nero told him.

“Wait? For how long?”

“Well, if you really love them, you'll wait for as long as you possibly can.”

“Hmm.. I dunno, kid. Sounds like a lot of trouble to me.” Dante joked. He actually didn't have an interest in finding a 'special someone,' as Jack had pointed out before, him being in a relationship would be dangerous for his significant other. But there's no harm in asking questions.

“Kinda. But it's worth it in the end. You'll understand when you grow up.” Nero smirked. Dante chuckled at this. For the next few minutes, they sat in relative silence, occasionally making small talk, until Willow came walking up to the table alone.

“Geez, I thought she'd never let me leave. She told me we'd only do one dance and three dances later we're still up there.” Willow complained as he sat down in between Jack and Nero. He looked down at his plate of food. “My food's probably cold too..” he muttered as he began to eat.

“Oh stop your complaining, at least you have somebody to go home to tonight.” Jack told him.

“Yeah, I suppose you're right.” Willow agreed after swallowing a bite of food. Several minutes of nobody talking passed as Willow and Jack ate their food, while Dante and Nero simply observed the people on the dance floor. Once Willow had finished eating what he wanted to eat, he noticed, upon looking at Jack, that Jack was longingly looking out at the dance floor. He sighed heavily.

“Do you want to dance with me?” Willow asked him, knowing that Jack is the only one of the four men who likes to dance, but yet likely won't have the opportunity to do so if he doesn't offer. Jack looked at him with a look similar to a child's excitement.

“I would love to dance! ...But don't think you can cop a feel just because we're dancing.” Jack warned him. Willow laughed.

“I'll try not to.” He said sarcastically. Willow stood up from his chair, as did Jack, and they both went out onto the dance floor. Nero looked over at Dante, smirking mischievously.

“Would you like to dance too?” He offered as a joke, knowing the elder would refuse.

“What? No, no, slow dancing isn't really my thing.” Dante told him, shaking his head side to side a bit to reiterate his rejecting Nero's offer.

“Have you ever slow danced before?” He asked purely out of curiosity.

“Well... um..” 

“I can show you how to slow dance.” Nero offered. Unlike before, this offer was genuine. He knew Dante likely would not like dancing, at least not while sober, but not at least knowing how to slow dance? 

“I'm fine here.” Dante insisted.

“No, you're going to learn how to dance.” Nero stood up from his chair and held out his hand to Dante, offering him to take it. “It's not hard.” After thinking about it for a few seconds, Dante went ahead and grabbed Nero's hand, then stood up from his chair. He could already feel his regret for making this decision.

“Just don't step on my toes, okay?” Dante joked. Nero smiled and led him out onto the dance floor. He stopped on the edge of the dance floor so that he could have enough room to teach Dante, since everybody else is near the center. He let go of Dante's hand and faced him.

“There are a few different styles of slow dancing, but I find this one to be the simplest.” Nero told him. “I'll be the woman and you'll be the man, since I don't think you'll ever be dancing as a woman.” He explained. “The woman puts her left hand on her partner's right shoulder.” He put his left hand onto Dante's shoulder. “And the man will put his right hand on the woman's left hip.” Nero grabbed Dante's forearm and placed his hand onto his hip. Touching another man like this made Dante feel a bit uncomfortable, but he chose to not say anything about it. If Nero, the guy who once tried to punch him in the face for grabbing his shoulder, doesn't feel uncomfortable with his hip being grabbed, then Dante should be okay with grabbing his hip.

“Now, you join hands with your partner and hold it up to the shoulder level of whoever is taller. We're about the same height though, so that doesn't really matter in this case.” Nero held his hand   
up and waited for Dante to join hands with him. Dante held up his hand, but didn't join hands with Nero since he didn't know how he was supposed to hold his hand, such as if he was supposed to interlock their fingers or if he just supposed to grab his hand whatever way. Nero grabbed Dante's hand and interlocked their fingers for him, noticing his hesitation due to his indecision. This made Dante feel more uncomfortable. 

“Simple, right?” Nero asked, with Dante nodding in silent agreement. “Now comes the actual dancing. How I always do it is I put the woman's left foot in between my feet, and she'll put her right foot on the outside of my feet. It makes leading easier. I'll lead first, so put your left foot in between my feet, and then you'll try leading.” Dante did as he said and put his left foot between Nero's feet.

“Make sure and watch my feet.” Dante nodded, then looked down to watch their feet move. Nero moved his feet to step to one side, with Dante following, then moved to the other side. Dante watched their feet move together for a few steps, then he looked up and smiled genuinely at Nero. He can't say that he was happy to be learning how to dance, but it was nice to know that Nero's willing to go through this much trouble to teach him something new. Nero, meanwhile, was still looking down at their feet to make sure Dante was stepping right and didn't see him smiling. Dante watched Nero's face and noticed, for the first time, how beautiful the lighting from the chandelier made everything. It lit up Nero's face in a perfect manner, softening his otherwise harshly masculine features and highlighting how perfectly smooth and flawless the young man's skin is. For these few moments that he was observing these new characteristics on the kid's face, he actually forgot that he was still slow dancing with him, instead allowing his body to naturally flow in movements with the soft, slow music, perfectly in time with Nero's movements, rather than having to forcibly think about each movement. As Nero looked back up at Dante, he quickly stopped smiling and refocused his attention to his dance lesson by looking down at his own feet briefly. 

“Now you lead.” Nero told him, switching the positions of their feet. It took Dante a couple seconds to adjust to this change, but he got the hang of how to lead pretty quickly. “See, now you know how to slow dance. Was that really so bad?”

“Just a little bit.” Dante joked, to which Nero just rolled his eyes. For a couple more minutes, they practiced dancing. After all, the next song had already started and it'd be more awkward to stop dancing in the middle of a song. As the song ended, a familiar voice spoke up.

“May I cut in?” Kyrie smiled at the two of them. Neither had noticed, but at some point she had walked up to them.

“Yeah, I was just teaching this old man how to dance.” Nero spoke to Kyrie, teasing Dante. 

“Old dogs can learn new tricks too, ya know.” Dante joked. They then broke apart from their dancing position, with Dante backing up a few paces so Kyrie could cut in.

“I'll be at the bar.” Dante notified Nero, figuring his duty of keeping the man company was over with, who responded with a nod, before Dante left the dance floor and started heading towards the bar. He sat down at the bar stool, but sat so that he could still see Nero and Kyrie. He smiled as he watched them dance. At first, it was interesting to see them dancing. Though not a romantic type of guy, it was still refreshing to see that there actually is a such thing as young love, not to mention it was curiously weird to see such a hotheaded guy act so calm and happy as he danced with her. But, the longer they danced, the more intimate their dancing became. He started feeling more disinterested and perhaps slightly annoyed the longer he watched. So, he turned around in the stool so that he was now facing the bar instead of the dance floor. 

“Watcha want?” The bartender asked as he cleaned a dirty glass with a cloth rag, much like in the movies.

“Anything with a good amount of alcohol in it.” Dante asked. Within a few seconds, he had a drink in front of Dante. A half hour later, he had drank around five drinks. As he finished downing his sixth drink, somebody tapped his shoulder.

“Yeah?” Dante looked over his shoulder to see who it was. It was, of course, Nero, who probably knows the older man went over his two drinks limit, but chose to not ask about it.

“Hey, Kyrie and I are going to go ahead and leave now. I don't think headquarters will have any available rooms this late in the day, so do you want to come with us? We have a spare bedroom and I'll ask one of the guys to drop off your clothes in the morning.” He offered.

“Sure, beggars can't be choosers Thanks, kid." He flashed him a small smile in thanks. Secretly, Dante was very relieved. He didn't really want to go all the way back to headquarters and have to spend the night in a room with somebody else. He stood up off of the bar stool.

“Are you okay to walk to our house?” Nero asked in a moderately concerned tone.

“Yeah I'm fine. It takes a lot more than that to get me tipsy.” Dante smirked. After years of drinking various kinds of drinks, he had developed a high tolerance to alcohol - though, he wasn't an alcoholic. At least not in his mind.

“Then why do you drink at all if it takes a lot to get your drunk?” Nero asked out of curiosity. He turned around and led Dante towards the exit of the building.

“Just to take the edge off.” Dante explained as he followed him. 

“Yeah, well, I bet you won't feel good in the morning, drunk or not.” Nero told him, to which Dante jokingly dismissed this idea with an unconcerned wave of his hand. “I'll be sure to leave out a couple headache relief pills for you in the morning.” He joked. They then reached the exit and were joined by Kyrie, who had been standing beside the door, waiting for them. By this point, she had undone her hair and taken off her shoes in favor of comfort. Nero explained to Dante that the house wasn't very far from here before they began walking back to Nero's house in silence, enjoying the night's beauty instead of disrupting it with their jabbering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the past, I've always written action-based stories/chapters, so writing the subtle romance in this chapter was difficult for me. I hope I did at least a fairly good job!


	8. Beginning of a New Journey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio heads out to find the demon's brothers.

Dante had slept in what used to be Credo's room, but has since been changed into the guest room, for the night. Before Nero retired for the night yesterday, he and Dante talked. The conversation started out with Nero causally mentioning how the room Dante was going to sleep in use to be Credo's. By the time Nero left, though, he had told him all about Credo and how hard it was to accept his death, especially since there was no closure from burying him since there was no body for them to actually bury. Dante mostly just listened and contributed to the conversation when he felt it was needed, but for the most part, he figured Nero just needed somebody to talk to. After all, he and Trish were the only ones present for Credo's final moments. It was likely Nero didn't want to talk about such a personal matter with somebody who wasn't there and wouldn't understand how much of an impact Credo's death had on him. By the time Nero had said all that he had been needing to say, it was late in the night. It was surprising that the normally quiet kid could talk for so long!

In the morning, or rather, early afternoon, Dante finally started to wake up. Thankfully for him, today was Nero's day off, which meant that Nero didn't have to wake up early, which also meant he wouldn't force Dante to wake up early too. He really needed the extra hours of sleep after staying up late the night before. Dante yawned widely and stretched all across the bed, intent on taking as much time as he could before he had to actually get out of bed. After doing this, he sat up in the bed and noticed that his clothes were neatly folded up on top of the end table beside the bed. It even looked like they had been washed. Like Nero had promised the night before, there was also a glass of water and a couple of pills beside his clothes. Dante just shook his head and smirked at this. He didn't have a hangover from drinking last night and so didn't need the pills, but he appreciated the gesture. However, he went ahead and drank the glass of water anyways. Once officially out of bed, he began to dress himself. As he did, he noticed a third thing that had changed while he was asleep. The tux he had been wearing the night before, which he had stripped out of as soon as Nero left the room, and had left laying on the floor was now gone. He felt a bit guilty for not at least neatly hanging it up on a coat hanger, but then he reminded himself that he didn't exactly know Nero was going to sneak into his room while he slept. 

After fully clothing himself, briefly combing his hair, and doing the other little things necessary to be ready for the day, he walked out of the bedroom. Of course, before leaving, he made sure he made the bed. He didn't even make his own bed back at home, but the pristine atmosphere of the house made Dante feel weird if he didn't at least make the bed before leaving. It was the least he could do to show his appreciation for them letting him stay here. Once he stepped out of the room, he heard dishes clanking downstairs. Assuming it was probably a person making that noise, he headed downstairs and into the kitchen. Kyrie was standing in front of the kitchen sink, cleaning up what appeared to be dirty dishes from this morning's breakfast. She didn't notice Dante, as her back was to the doorway. Nero was nowhere to be found.

“Where'd the kid go running off to now?” Dante asked as he looked around the kitchen, as if to make sure Nero wasn't hiding somewhere in the room. Kyrie jumped, startled since she didn't know Dante was in the room.

“Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya.” Dante apologized, chuckling lightly.

“Oh, it's fine. I didn't know you were awake.” She explained with a smile before she turned his attention back to the dishes. “Nero went down to headquarters. Something about needing to make sure that demon is doing okay..” Kyrie shuttered, clearly not liking the idea of Nero befriending Aglæca. “He said he'd be back, but he left over an hour ago. I bet one of those rowdy friends of his won't let him leave until he's spent half the day there.” She didn't sound very fond of Nero spending so much time at headquarters either. “Oh I'm so sorry, there aren't any leftovers from breakfast. Do you want me to make you something?”

“Nah, it's alright.” Dante hadn't really ever had somebody offer to make him food, since Lady and Trish didn't know any more about cooking than he did. Kyrie seemed busy enough without also having to make him food though. She stopped cleaning the dishes to look back at Dante.

“Would you at least like to have some coffee? Nero tells me you aren't much of a morning person, so it might help you wake up some.” She smiled warmly at him. Dante returned her smile.

“Sure, I don't see why not.” And so, Kyrie dried off her hands, then grabbed a couple clean mugs from the cabinets and poured some freshly-made coffee into one of them.

“What do you like in it?” She asked as she poured.

“Usually I just add in some liquor, but I don't suppose you have any of that.” Dante joked as sat down at the kitchen table as Kyrie giggled at his joke. Truth be told he didn't really like coffee, but he figured Kyrie wasn't going to be happy until he accepted one of her offers to make him something.

“No, Nero doesn't like alcohol.” She began making herself a cup of coffee as well. “I don't really like the taste of it myself.” After she finished making her cup, she walked over to Dante and sat down his cup in front of him on the table. As she sat down next to him, Dante picked up his cup. 

“Yeah, it's hard to get used to.” Dante said idly before taking a sip. “So, how have things been goin' between you two love birds?” He didn't like talking about somebody else's dating relationship, but he and Kyrie didn't really have anything in common, so he figured asking about her and Nero's relationship would at least pass the time.

“Oh, yeah, it's been fine.” Kyrie's tone said differently, much to Dante's surprise. 

“It doesn't sound fine.” Dante took another sip of his coffee. Kyrie sighed and stared into the cup of coffee resting on the table, in between her hands.

“Don't get me wrong, I love him, but... I don't know, I'm just not very happy.”

“Well, what's the issue?” In his head, Dante calculated how quickly he could drink his coffee without seeming like he was in a rush to leave. After all, he didn't want to be rude and abruptly leave, but if he stayed much longer he might be here for hours trying to fix her relationship. Not that he didn't care, he just… doesn't take an interest in being a therapist.

“He's not a very romantic person. At first, he would surprise me with things like roses and gifts... but once our relationship got comfortable, he stopped doing that. He doesn't flirt or anything either. He's a great guy, and I know he loves me too, but I want to feel like he really _wants_ me. I even told him that I wanted to wait until marriage before we, well.. you know," She said, blushing lightly as she's likely never talked about such things before "just to see if he'd be disappointed or something, but he didn't have an issue with that it all.” She explained. Dante took a few seconds to process what she said and to come up with a response.

“Well, did you did say you wanted to wait, right? Why would he think any differently?” Wait? Dante's actually taking this seriously and responded maturely? Something doesn't sound right here..

“Yeah, I know... I just.. I just want somebody who'll flirt with me… Y'know? Make me feel like I'm a woman again.” Kyrie looked up at him. “Somebody who's, oh… I don't know…" She paused as she looked back down at her cup of brown liquid. "Charismatic…. Seductive…. Someone who flirts so much that he doesn't even know when he's flirting.” She looked up at him with an innocent smile. At first, Dante just looked at her, confused about why she was smiling at him like she was. He then remembered what Jack said last night. ' _The man is such a player that he doesn't even know when he's flirting anymore_.' 

“Well... I'm sure things will change for you two, if you just give it some time.” Dante said as he casually stood up from his chair, leaving his cup on the table. “Thanks for the coffee.” He smiled at her to show his thanks, then turned and left the room. He could feel her eyes watching him as he left the house though. As soon as he left, he started thinking about what that conversation could've meant. Was she flirting with him? …Should he tell Nero? No, he's just overthinking this, she probably was just trying to get him to convince Nero to start being romantic with her..

Dozens of questions and possible explanations were running through his head as he walked into the headquarters building. The room you first walk into when walking into headquarters is the lounge room, which is where Nero, Willow, Jack, and a few other Order members were. Nero, who was sitting on one of the couches in the room in a relaxed position, looked over at Dante when he entered the room.

“Look who decided to wake up today.” He teased.

“You have to get plenty of beauty sleep to look _this_ good, ya know.” Dante smirked. He decided not to tell Nero, figuring he was just over thinking the conversation he had with Kyrie. No need to send Nero in a panic over misread signals.

“Yeah yeah, you look gorgeous. Now c'mon, I've been waiting for you.” Nero stood up from the couch.

“Aw, thanks, kid.” Dante said, pretending Nero's compliment was genuine. 

“But you're still an old man.” Nero teased. 

“Hey, can I come with you guys?” Jack asked. He was sitting on the other side of the couch that Nero was sitting on.

“Sure." Nero said, shrugging. "Willow, you want to come too?” He offered as Jack stood up from the couch.

“Yeah, but I've got a lot of work I need to do. Might be able to catch up with you guys later.” Nearby the couch, Willow was sitting in a wooden chair with a table in front of him. On the table, there were piles of paperwork. 

“Have fun with that.” Nero joked with him before leaving the room, with Jack and Dante soon following after him.

“Just how old do you think I am?” Dante asked out of curiosity, referring to when Nero called him an old man. Though it's not like Nero had never called him an old man before. Nero looked back at Dante briefly so that he could refresh his memory of what Dante looked like.

“Hmm.... late 40's? Early 50's?” Nero jokingly asked. Dante dramatically clutched the heart region of his chest as if such an accusation physically hurt him.

“Ouch... that hurts.” He joked back. Nero laughed in response to Dante's dramatics.

“No, I'd say late 20's.” He said, turning his head back so that he may see in front of himself again.

“Oh, really?” Dante smirked. He took it as a compliment that Nero thought he was younger than he really is.

“That'd be my guess. Why? How old are you?” 

“33.” 

“Damn, you're old!” Nero teased.

“Hey, if you're calling him old, then you're calling me old too. You won't stay 19 with baby soft skin forever either, you know.” Jack reminded him.

“You're only 19?” That actually surprised Dante. He knew Nero was young, but he didn't know he was still a teenager. “You really are a kid.”

“Am not!” Nero said childishly. Dante chuckled.

“Don't worry, Nero. Someday, when you grow up, you'll be as big and strong as Dante.” Jack teased.

“Now Dante is supposed to be my role model? Great, I'm going to become an egotistical smart ass when I'm older...” He said sarcastically.

“Well, you're already a smart ass, so you're half way there.” Dante taunted. Nero went to say something back, but Jack quickly interrupted him.

“Before you two start fighting about who's the bigger smart ass, where are we going?” Jack asked.

“ _Well_ ," Nero huffed, turning his attention away from Dante "right now I was just wanting to get away from the others.” Nero stopped and turned around towards them, making them also stop walking in the process. “Wouldn't want them overhearing us.” Dante and Jack looked at each other, exchanging confused glances. 

“It's about Aglæca. He wants to find his brothers with our help.” Nero explained. 

“No way! How do we know we won't find them, only to have him turn on us?” Jack interjected. Nero shrugged in response.

“We don't know. But if we stay on his good side by helping him, he might agree to help the Order fight demons.”

“IF he and his bros don't decide to kill us. How are we supposed to even find them? Aglæca was trapped for over a thousand years, he probably has no idea where they could be by now. It'll be like finding a needle in a haystack!”

“That's why Dante's here.” Nero told him. “You and me can take Aglæca's brothers, and Aglæca if necessary, but we don't have experience in tracking down demons. Dante does. He'll be the magnet to find the needle in a haystack.” He looked over at Dante. “But I know Dante has his own responsibilities. This isn't going to be an easy or quick search. It'll take a while to track them down.” Jack also looked over at Dante, waiting to hear what he had to say. Dante thought over some things for a few seconds.

“I can call Trish and see if she's willing to watch the shop.” Dante offered.

“I don't understand. Why are we doing this for him? Can't he do it himself? Sure doing this might earn Aglæca's favor, but we're not talking about a trip to Disneyland. This could be dangerous.” Jack sounded concerned. Nero looked over at Jack.

“He can't do it himself, he's still pretty weak. I told him we should wait until he's gets more strength, but he insists his brothers need to be taken care of as soon as possible.” Nero told Jack. He refocused his attention to Dante. “I've already talked to the captain, I told him we're going on a trip to slay some high-risk demons. He's letting us use funds from the Order to pay for food and hotels, so money isn't an issue.” Nero told him. Dante nodded that he understood in response, then left the room so he could call Trish and hopefully talk her into staying at the shop in his place. 

“I'm not sure about this...” Jack told him. He looked pretty worried.

“Alright then, you can stay here while me and Dante travel the world.” Nero smirked. Jack's eyes widened.

“No, no, it's okay, I'll go with you!” Suddenly, he no longer seemed worried.

“I figured you'd like that.” Nero said in an amused tone. After that, they made small talk until Dante returned minutes later.

“Well, Trish isn't very happy, but she has a soft spot for you, so she's going to keep the shop running and have Lady help her with jobs until I get back.” Dante explained as he walked back into the room. “But if anything serious happens, I'd have to go help them.”

“She has a soft spot for me?” Nero asked inquisitively. 

“Oh yeah. She loves kids, she just can't say no to them.” Dante smirked. 

“Ha ha, very funny.” Nero mocked him with a briefly irritated expression. “Aglæca said he was going to try and figure out where we should go first. I haven't been back to see if he figured anything out, though.” 

“Well let's get moving then!” Jack said excitedly. He rushed ahead of Nero and headed towards the basement.

“What's gotten into him?” Dante asked.

“I told him that we're probably going to be traveling to different places around the world in search of these demons.” Nero smiled at Jack's new found enthusiasm. “C'mon, if we don't hurry up he might leave without us.” With that, Nero and Dante began walking in the same direction Jack went in. Jack was eagerly waiting for them by Aglæca's cell door by the time the pair made it down to the basement.

“What'd you come up with?” Nero asked as he approached the cell. Aglæca was inside the cell, standing beside a table. On the table was a map that he was carefully looking over.

“I think the first location we should try is this small Italian town.” Aglæca put his finger on the map to show Nero what he was talking about. Nero grabbed out the cell's keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. He entered the cell and headed towards the table, intending to look at Aglæca's map.

“Why that town?” He asked as he observed the map.

“It's a small, relatively unknown location surrounded by mountains. There isn't another town around it for many miles. My brothers and I use to always carve out our homes in the sides of large mountains, with usually a small town nearby, in case we needed supplies. This town is likely to be full of mostly elderly civilians, rather than young men who might stumble upon the home of a demon while venturing out of town. There are many locations like this around the world, but my brother's tended to favor Italian towns. There are a few other locations around this town that they would've also preferred, if this location doesn't work out.” Aglæca explained.

“How are we supposed to figure out if your brother's are in the town, without causing suspicion?” Nero questioned. Dante then entered Aglæca's cell as well, joining them around the table to examine the map.

“Simple. Just ask them if they've seen anything suspicious or out of place in the area. We could always look around the town as well. Canicus never bothered to hide what he was or where he was at, but Nicephorus preferred to cover his tracks and make as few people as possible know of his presence. So, if they are still working together, Nicephorus would keep himself and Canicus hidden, as well as try to hide their existence from the local people, but Canicus is bound to slip up and leave evidence of himself everywhere he goes.”

“What if they separated?” Dante asked as he looked up at Aglæca. Aglæca sighed deeply. 

“Then this will be a difficult search. Canicus would be easy to find by himself, but Nicephorus would practically be invisible if he is alone with nobody around to screw up and accidentally reveal his location.”

“Alright, we know where we're going, so can we go now? Please?” Jack begged Nero.

“No, we need to wait until it's dark outside. That's the only way we'll get Aglæca out of here without attracting attention.” Nero told him. Jack groaned like a child who didn't get what he wanted. “For now, we'll go over the plans and make sure we don't forget anything.” 

With that, they used the rest of the day's light hours to plan and prepare for the night's plan of action.


	9. Don't Get Caught!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sneaking demons who're obviously demons out of a demon-hunting city can be difficult...

“We got everything?” Nero asked as he finished stuffing some clothes into a duffel bag. 

“I think so.” Jack said. He had, in his hands, a piece of paper that could be safely assumed had a list of things to bring on it. 

“Do you need to borrow some of my clothes, Dante?” Nero offered. He figured Dante only brought a couple sets of clothes, since he came to Fortuna thinking he'd only be here a couple days.

“Nah, I'm good. I've got the clothes I'm wearing and a couple days worth of clean clothes.” Dante grabbed an empty bag and began to put his clothes into it. Nero looked over at him.

“Here, just put your clothes in my bag. You don't have a lot of stuff and it'll mean one less bag to lug around.” Nero opened up his duffel bag widely so that Dante could drop his stuff into the bag.

“Why do we need a tent? I thought we were going to stay in hotels.” Jack asked, looking over the pile of bags to make sure they had everything they need.

“There probably won't always be a hotel around for us to stay in.” Nero told him as Dante dropped his clothes into his bag. Jack examined the tent bag.

“Wouldn't we need more than one small tent then? Or at least a big tent?”

“Yeah, sure, if you really want to be carrying around a big tent bag along with your other bags, go for it.” Nero smushed Dante's clothes deeper into the bag, making it to where he could now zip up the bag.

“Well, no... but how on earth are we all going to fit five people in here?”

“Five? Where'd you get five?” 

“Me, you, Dante, Kyrie, and Willow.” Jack responded.

“It'll just be us for a while. Willow said he had a lot of work to catch up on, but he'll text me whenever he's done so that can meet up with us.”

“And Kyrie? Last I heard she was having a shit fit when she found out you're going to be leaving for a while and was refusing to let you leave without her.”

“Well, after a long, long talk..” Nero grimaced as he remembered his and Kyrie's conversation earlier in the day. “..I convinced her to stay here. As long as I call her every day and talk to her for at least an hour, she might not be too mad at me by the time we get back.” 

“Boy, if this is what it's like for you after just a few months of dating, how the hell are you going to survive marriage with her?” Jack teased. 

“I don't even want to think about marriage right now.” Nero didn't look the least bit happy.

“Well, as much fun as this conversation is, are ready to go?” Dante decided to change the subject before it got too depressing. 

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Could you go get Aglæca for me?” Nero asked, offering him the key, presumably Aglæca's cell key, that is in his hand.

“Sure thing.” He grabbed the key out of Nero's hand and proceeded towards the basement. 

“We at least have our own sleeping bags, right?” Jack asked hopefully. Nero chuckled as he walked over to a nearby wall that had Red Queen propped up against it. 

“Yeah. There's no way in hell I'm sleeping right next to Dante, I found out during that week he stayed here that he sleeps in just his underwear.” He said as he put Red Queen onto his back. 

“He does? Huh, I figured he'd be the kind of guy to sleep in the nude... “

“Thankfully, he doesn't. Otherwise that would've been a very traumatic week.” Nero shuttered at the thought. “C'mon, let's start grabbing up these bags so we're ready to go by the time Dante gets back.” He said as he walked towards the pile of duffel bags. The two men then began picking up the bags, attempting to pick up and carry as much as possible. After a couple of minutes, Dante returned with Aglæca.

“Here ya go.” Dante said, tossing the key Nero gave him to him. Nero almost dropped one of the duffel bags as he caught the key, not expecting Dante to toss it to him.

“You don't look ready to go.” Nero said after readjusting the bag he nearly dropped, noticing that Aglæca was only carrying a map in his hand. 

“I'm ready. This map is all I need. I have no need for clothing and I assume you will provide shelter and sustenance.” 

“Fair enough. I already packed a couple maps though, so you don't really need that either.”

“No, I need this map. I've spent the past few hours mapping out possible locations and the order in which we'll visit those locations on this map.” Aglæca explained.

“Are you sure it's late enough? We're not gonna be caught sneaking a demon out of the city, right?” Jack asked, a bit nervous.

“It's a little past midnight. This town is always dead by 9 o'clock, so there's really no chance anybody is still awake.” Nero reassured him. “Now, Dante, grab up those last few bags so we can get goin'.” 

“I didn't hear a 'please'.” Dante teased as he went over and picked up the remaining bags that were on the floor. 

“Nope, you sure didn't.” Nero smirked, joking back at him. "Now, before we leave, I've got some ground rules I want to cover. First off, no drinking.” He turned to look directly at Dante, making it clear to him that he is mostly talking to him. Dante held up his hands in submission, non-verbally telling him he'll abide by the rule. “Secondly, no partying. Third, and most importantly, sex is prohibited. This isn't a 'get drunk and have lots of fun' trip, we're out looking for two potentially dangerous demons and I don't need anybody getting distracted. Understand?” The entire time, he solely looked at Dante. 

“Got it, no fun, all business.” Dante smirked. Nero, however, looked dead serious.

“I mean it. If you're not focused, you're not only risking your own life, you're risking our lives.”

“Don't worry, I understand.” He sounded a bit more serious than before, which was apparently enough for Nero to believe him, as he then turned his attention to Jack to get his confirmation. Jack quickly nodded to him.

“Good. We're ready then.” Nero then led the way towards the headquarters building's exit. 

Luckily for the trio, they made it out of headquarters safely without waking any of the other Order members, though they had to dodge a couple members who were still awake. However, once they made it out of the building safely, the journey from there was pretty easy. As expected, none of the civilians were awake and they left the town without anybody noticing. Of course, the ferry that takes people to and from the island wasn't running at such a late hour, so Nero, knowing the ferry wouldn't still be running, had asked to borrow the boat of another Order member earlier that day. Thankfully, the boat had plenty of room for them and their stuff. After a long and boring boat ride, they arrived onto the mainland and exited the boat. Immediately, they headed towards the outskirts of the city that was next to the boating dock. It was harder to hide the tall, jet black demon since the city was more well-lit than Fortuna, but by sticking to the shadows and making sure nobody was around them, they managed to sneak out of the main part of city without arousing too much suspicion. By this time, since they were taking no chances and took plenty of time carefully sneaking the demon out of both cities, it was already going on 5 o'clock in the morning.

“There's a motel right there.” Jack pointed towards an old-looking, somewhat run down building across the road. You didn't have to go inside to get into a room either - all the rooms were accessible from the outside, making it easier to sneak Aglæca into a room.

“Yeah, that'll do. There's nothing but trees behind it, so I'm assuming this is the end of the city. Whenever we wake up we can just sneak him out the back and start heading towards that town.” 'Him' being Aglæca. With that, they crossed the road after making sure no cars were coming. “Jack, you'll need to go in and get our room.” He dug his hand into a pocket located on the inside of his coat.

“Aw, why me?” Jack protested.

“Because you're the most normal looking person here. If me or Dante were to go in, they'd probably give us funny looks. I just want you to get in and get out quickly so we can get some sleep.” Jack muttered complaints under his breath, but didn't argue about it further. “Here, this is the card the Order is letting us borrow. We're only staying one night and we only need one room. Try and get one with as many beds or couches as they have available.” Nero pulled a credit card from out of his pocket and handed it to Jack, who begrudgingly took the card from him and began a slow, grumpy walk into the hotel's front office. 

“What if they don't have four beds?” Dante asked.

“I don't need a bed, I just need a couple of pillows.” Aglæca said.

“You sure? That doesn't sound comfortable.” Dante shifted his attention to Aglæca.

“I'm used to sleeping on the ground, so even having pillows to lie upon is a blessing to me.” At about this time, Jack was coming out of the front office.

“Wow, that was really fast.” Nero commented.

“Yeah, the lady got mad at me for waking her up to ask for a room, so she was rushing to get me out so that she could go back to sleeping behind her desk.” Jack gave the credit card back to Nero, who put the card back in his pocket. He examined over the number on the room key he was given, then looked up at the numbers above the doors on the motel wall. “Oh, there's our room.” He said, pointing at one of the room doors. 

“Well then what are we waitin' on?” Dante said, making a bee line for the motel room. 

“What are ya doin', old man? You can't get in even if you get there first, you don't have the key!” Nero reminded him as he and the others followed at a slower pace behind him.

“Old man? I'm clearly not the old man here.” Dante teased as he made it to the door, since Nero is walking slower than him.

“Yeah yeah, it's been a long day.” He said, reaching the motel room's door soon after. Jack came up behind him and handed Nero the key. Nero, in turn, unlocked the door and stepped inside. He stopped a bit past the door way so that he could set down his bags and weapons. Jack came running in past him, shedding the bags he was once carrying as he ran and letting them carelessly fall to the ground. Without taking off his shoes or even removing his sword from his back, he ran to and jumped stomach-first onto the first bed he found. The sound of the bed's springs struggling to support the sudden weight was soon replaced with a deep, relaxed sigh from Jack.

“Well, he's claimed his bed.” Nero commented, having stopped putting down his things to watch Jack's childish behavior. He then resumed putting down the last few items before he began taking off his coat and boots. In the meantime, Dante and Aglæca had come in behind Jack, though in a much less enthusiastic way. Dante went over to another bed, placed his bags beside the bed, and leaned Rebellion up against the wall. Then, he laid down onto the bed on his back with his ankles crossed and his hands behind his head. Nero, after removing his coat and boots, looked around the room briefly.

“Hey, wait a minute! There's only two beds!” 

“The lady said that's all she had left... I figured we could sleep… two per bed.” Jack told him. He had his eyes closed and sounded as though he was already drifting off to sleep.

“We can't do that, these beds aren't big enough. What are we supposed to do now?”

“We can... um... roll up the carpet..... and… uh….” After that, Jack said a few more incomprehensible words before falling silent. The silence was replaced by soft snoring sounds a few seconds later. Nero just sighed. He went over to the room's closet, opened it up, and handed Aglæca a couple of pillows and a blanket that had been stored away inside. Aglæca thanked him before going into one of the room's corners, laying down on the carpeted floor, and positioning himself and the pillows in a way that was comfortable to him.

“You can sleep with me in my bed.” Dante smirked.

“Yeah, I bet you'd like that.” Nero headed over to the duffel bags he had left on the ground.

“Pssh, you really think I'd like to share a bed with you when it's barely big enough for me?” In the back of Dante's mind, sharing a bed with him didn't sound that bad. He told himself he only thought that though because Nero might not be grouchy when they woke up if he slept in a comfortable bed.

“I know how you perverts work. That bed is small, so you'd insist that we cuddle in order to save space and you'd be free to feel me up. I'm no fool.” Nero teased as he grabbed out a sleeping bag from one of the duffel bags. After turning off the lights, he walked over to the empty space in front of Dante's bed and laid out his sleeping bag there.

“Oh, so is that what it is? You're afraid you won't be able to resist my charms?” 

“Goodnight, Dante.” Nero said as he laid down in his sleeping bag, preferring to cut off the conversation before it got too weird. Dante chuckled, he had managed to get Nero to loosen up some these past few months, but saying certain things could still embarrass him.

“G'night, kid.” Dante waited a few seconds before standing up off of his bed, being careful to not let the bed springs make noise, and beginning to strip off his clothes. Thankfully for him, Nero must've already gotten settled in and closed his eyes, as he didn't hear Nero's pleas for him to take off his clothes in the bathroom instead of out in the open. As he relieved himself of his leather confines, he wondered why it was such a big deal to Nero that he strips down to his boxers in front of him. I mean, sure, his body was different from Nero's because of muscle mass and whatnot, but they still had the same basic male form. Dante just figured that it was because Nero grew up in a town where being modest is practically a law. After his clothes had been removed, save his underwear, he got back into bed. It didn't take him long to fall asleep, now that he's actually comfortable. 

\--------------------------------

By the time anybody woke up, it was already going on 3pm. Nero, of course, was the first person to stir. Somehow, he always managed to wake up before most people do. Being used to this, he wasn't surprised to see the rest of the gang fast asleep. After taking his time stretching out his muscles and just letting himself get used to being awake in general, he crawled out of his sleeping bag and stood up. Picking up the sleeping bag after he stood up, he began rolling it up as he pressed it against his stomach. After a moment or two of watching himself roll up the bag, Nero then looked around the room. Since he was closest, he spied Dante in his bed first. Dante was lying on his back with one hand near his face, on his pillow, and the other hand down next to his waist. His head was lying on its right side. Clearly, he had moved around in his sleep, since his hair was quite disheveled. Though his hair wasn't perfect looking, his messy hair, the relaxed look on his face, and his lips being slightly parted open gave him an uncharacteristically innocent appearance. Seeing such a thing on a man like Dante was rare, but it also made him look adorably… well, cute. Perhaps that's why looking innocent was uncommon for him; Dante, the egotistical man he is, prefers to be called “sexy” rather than “cute”.

As Nero's eyes trailed south, he noticed that Dante had kicked the sheets in his sleep and that, rather than covering his body, they now only covered him from the waist down. He couldn't help but admire his muscular frame. It was no wonder to him why women love him - and why Dante _knows_ that they love him. With a body and face like his, he could get any woman he wanted. His personality could use improving, to say the least, but everybody has their flaws. Nero would never admit it, but the reason why he hated Dante undressing in front of him was because it made him feel uncomfortable and awkward. He blamed these feelings on the fact that Dante is more muscular than he is, and so seeing him nearly naked made him feel insecure. He wondered to himself whether a man like Dante, who sticks to sleazy one night stands and probably rarely ever meets a decent woman, could ever actually fall in love. Or at least recognize that's he's in love.

“He is a fine male human specimen, isn't he?” Aglæca spoke suddenly, but softly so to not wake the others, to Nero. “Well, he's not fully human... but he looks the part.” At some point unknown to him, Aglæca had woken up and had been watching him. Nero was startled by his thoughts being interrupted. He looked over at Aglæca, cheeks slightly flushed, showing his embarrassment for being caught staring at Dante. “Still in his prime too. Old enough to know all the tricks to seduce females, but young enough to where he still retains his attractive features. I remember those years... I had many offspring back then. I wouldn't doubt it if he had a couple hundred offspring of his own.” Nero sighed with relief – Aglæca didn't seem to think it was odd that Nero was observing another man like he was. 

“Probably not. We have a thing called 'birth control' nowadays.”

“Oh? That's a shame. Though I suppose it was necessary, the human population has reached great numbers these past couple thousand years I was away.” Nero chuckled at Aglæca.

“Yeah. Are demons polygamous by nature then, since you're expected to have lots of kids?” He asked more out of idle interest than genuinely wanting to know - he just wanted to move the conversation away from being about Dante.

“Yes and no. Much like humans, we are not restricted to one set of rules for how to go about reproducing. Though, whether by instinct or preference, the majority of male demons will attempt to mate with any female in their youth. Later on in life, before becoming middle aged, they usually choose one female to permanently stay with.” He explained.

“You never met anybody you wanted to settle down with?” Nero asked. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't of asked..” He said regrettably after Aglæca responded with a deep sigh.

“No no, it's perfectly fine. No, I never found a female that I found to my liking. I'm past my days of being able to reproduce, so there isn't much of a need for me to have a female anyways.”

“Demons reach an age when they can't reproduce anymore? Human females are like that, but male humans are able to have children up until the day they die.” Nero said as he put away his sleeping bag into the duffel bag it came out of.

“Most demons don't live long enough to become barren, but I am exceptionally old.” Aglæca chuckled. Nero smiled as he watched Aglæca, he had never seen a demon laugh or even smile before. It was comforting to know that there are indeed some demons out there that could experience, and express, joy. 

“Hey, whas all the noise 'bout..?” Dante slurred, having been woken up by the two talking. He yawned and rubbed his eyes as he sat up.

“It's about time you woke up. We need to start heading out at soon as possible, we've got a long walk ahead of us.” Nero told him, though Dante immediately laid back down and pulled the sheets up to cover himself completely, non-verbally telling him that he doesn't want to leave yet. 

“Ugh... We're walking?” Jack asked as he got out of bed sleepily. “I thought we were taking a plane there..”

“Alright, I'll leave you with the task of sneaking Aglæca onto a plane.” Nero retorted. Jack just groaned in response. Nero turned his attention back to Dante.

“Dante, you need to get up.” Nero waited a few seconds for a reply. “Don't make me pour cold water on you.” He threatened after Dante gave no response.

“Okay, okay... I'm getting up..” Dante said reluctantly. He flung the sheets off of himself as he sat up.

“Dante!” Nero shouted in a grossed out tone of voice as he quickly adverted his gaze from him. He had forgotten that Dante would still be in his underwear, having already repressed the regrettable experience of him observing the older man.

“Oh, sorry – I forgot that you can't handle seeing all this sexiness.” Dante teased. Bending over as he stood up, he grabbed up one of his duffel bags that he left beside his bed.

“Just cover yourself up before I lose my eyesight.” Nero said in an annoyed tone.

“I'm going, I'm going.” Dante headed into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. 

“I'm going to look in the phone book for a car rental place.” Jack decided. He grabbed out a large book from the end table's drawer beside his bed.

“Are you crazy? Somebody will notice Aglæca as we're driving, if we can get him past the people renting out the car, and it'll cost more than we got to rent a car and pay for the gas!”

“I will pay for it, I brought about $600 in cash just in case something happened. That'll pay for the car and hopefully most of the gas.” Jack said as he flipped through the pages. “Besides, it'd take us forever to get there by foot, whereas it'll take a few hours to drive there.”

“And how are we not supposed to get caught?” Nero crossed his arms.

“Simple. I go and rent the car, then come back and pick you guys up behind the building. Aglæca will sit in the backseat. I also put a jacket in my bag just in case it got cold, so he can wear that with the hood up just in case somebody driving beside us sees him.” Jack grabbed the motel phone off of the end table. Nero thought for a few seconds, thinking over Jack's plan.

“I think that's the best plan you've ever come up with.. Are you feeling okay?” He joked.

“Well, I'm a lazy guy. And I'm sure as hell not walking all around Italy and possibly Europe, then fighting a couple of demons that probably won't be easy to get rid of. That's like… the opposite of being lazy.” Jack dialed a number onto the phone after he finished what he was saying.

“You know, if you put that much effort into your work for the Order, you'd probably get a raise or promotion or something.” 

“Nah, that's too much work. I just don't want to walk.” Nero chuckled at Jack's response as he walked over to the bathroom door. He suddenly began pounding on it with his fist. “Hey! Hurry up will ya?”

“Just give me another minute kid, sheesh!” Dante said through the door. “That is, unless you want to see me with no pants on.” He said, adding a flirtatious tone to his voice.

“In that case, take all the time you need.” Nero joked, lacing his words with a tone of fake disgust. 

“Alright, I got us a car.” Jack said as he got off the phone. “They said it has lots of trunk space, so hopefully there's enough room in the back for our stuff.” He placed the motel phone back onto the receiver.

“I'm assuming you'll go pick it up?” Nero questioned.

“Yeah, sure. It's just a couple blocks from here.” Jack said as he put away the phone book and walked towards the door. “I'll be back soon.” He said before leaving the room. While Jack was out fetching their new ride, Nero was eventually able to get into the bathroom to change into some fresh clothes and get ready for the day. Afterwards, he and Dante disguised Aglæca with Jack's spare jacket before heading out of the motel room. Before they left, Dante made sure the coast was clear before Nero and Aglæca left so that they wouldn't accidentally scare the crap out of somebody because of the spiky, winged demon following them.


	10. A Rough Week

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Aglæca safely out of Fortuna, their hunt for his brother's begins, but they prove to be difficult to locate.

July 16th  
A week ago, the group left Fortuna in the hopes of finding Aglæca's brothers. After Jack returned to the motel with the rental car, and after fighting over who was going to sit where, they headed straight towards a very small Italian town that Aglæca had said his brothers might be at. The long, boring drive there was made even more boring after Nero shut off the radio in frustration when they couldn't decide on a station they all liked. According to Nero, he did it because he wasn't going to spend the next however many hours bickering over what music to listen to. Jack, however, figured shutting off the radio was Nero's way of getting revenge on him, since it was Jack's idea to stick Nero with the job of being the driver. After the long and grueling drive, they made it to the town without any real problems. No tire blowouts, the car didn't stall on them, no unexpected demon ambushes, nothing bad happened. To add to their good fortune, they found a city with hotels that was relatively close to the town Aglæca suggested they investigate first. Nero joked that the Gods must not know Dante is traveling with them, since the man is practically a 'bad news' magnet. However, Nero must've jinxed them, as their luck quickly ran dry after that. After spending days searching every inch in and around the city, interviewing every citizen, and just generally working their asses off, they found nothing to indicate Aglæca's brother were in, or had ever been, in the town. Realizing the town was a dead end, the group of four repacked their bags and headed towards their next destination.

“It was a total bust. Absolutely nothing there but farmers and barn animals.” Nero was talking on his phone. Dante had wisely decided it was best for him to drive this time, rather than making Nero drive again. Nero sat in the front passenger seat, while Aglæca and Jack have the backseat to themselves. There was a large map spread out across Aglæca's lap; he had taken the job of giving out directions. 

“What? No, we can't come home yet. We've barely started.” Nero paused to listen to the person on the other line. “We'll be back as soon as we can. I promise you, once we're back, you and I will go out to that favorite restaurant of yours. I know you've been wanting their famous double fudge mint chip sundae bowl lately.” He smiled as he spoke, as if the other person could see him. “After that we can go down to the park and walk around, then we could – ” Nero's smile quickly faded. “– Huh? Oh, alright... I'll call you tomorrow then.” Dante glanced over at Nero, surprised by the sudden end to his conversation. He observed Nero pressing the on-screen button to hang up his phone, looking confused and disappointed, before Dante looked back at the road ahead of them. 

“You're such a doting boyfriend. Can I date you?” Jack teased Nero, having eavesdropped on his and Kyrie's conversation.

“Maybe in your dreams.” Nero bantered back, losing his previously dejected expression. 

“Aww...” Jack said, faking disappointment.

“We're nearing our destination.” Aglæca informed them. “Take a left onto this road.” He told Dante, who did so. A few seconds of silence ticked by.

“..Hey, I know you said no booze, but-” “No.” Nero said firmly.

“C'mon, Nero. It's been a rough week, can't we just get a couple drinks? Please?” Jack begged, holding his hands together as if he's praying. “There is no such thing as 'a couple drinks'.” Nero retorted. “You'll drink until you're drunk.”

“I pinky promise I won't!” Jack held out his pinky to Nero, who responded by shaking his head 'no'. Jack then proceeded to stare at Nero with a puppy-dog eyed look with his bottom lip pooched out. Looking back at Jack, he saw his desperate attempt to get him to say yes, and so Nero sighed deeply. 

“Fine.” Immediately, Jack began doing a little happy dance in the back of the car. “But! No more than a couple drinks.” Jack frantically nodded his head up and down. “Do you think you can control yourself?” Nero questioned Dante, glancing over at him with a skeptical look. 

“Of course I can. I'm an adult, right?” He said after looking over at Nero and realizing he wasn't joking.

“I suppose. I just can't imagine you having much self control.” 

“Why's that?” Dante said with curiosity, though he already had a pretty good idea of what Nero was going to say.

“You're an alcoholic, a man-whore, and you do whatever you want whenever you want.” He accused. “How can you have self control when you've never needed it?” Dante just chuckled for a few seconds.

“Well, for one thing, I'm not an alcoholic. I might get drunk every now and again, sometimes to the point of proposing to mops, but I'm no alcoholic.” Nero gave him a confused look at the mention of him proposing to a mop. He was about to question Dante when Jack interrupted.

“Turn here, turn here!” He said, excited.

“What? The map doesn't say to turn here...” Aglæca rechecked his map frantically, just to make sure he didn't miss a turn.

“No, there's a bar here!” Jack exclaimed as Dante pulled off the highway and onto the dirt road connecting the bar to the highway. 

“There's no way we're stopping now! I thought you meant you'd go get some drinks after we got to town!” Nero protested.

“Aglæca said we're close to town, so that's good enough, right?” As soon as Dante parked the car, Jack quickly hopped out and ran to the bar's doors. Nero groaned and crossed his arms in irritation.

“You not coming?” Dante asked as he undid his seat belt, noticing that Nero didn't look like he was going to budge anytime soon.

“I'm not much of a drinker. Besides, somebody has to stay out here with Aglæca.”

“Don't worry about me, I'm fine with the idea of staying here alone and taking a quick nap. My eyes could use the rest.” Aglæca yawned shortly after speaking.

“See, he's fine. C'mon, you don't have to drink a lot. A bit of alcohol actually helps you relax, something you clearly can't do by yourself.” Dante teased as he got out of the car, though Nero clearly looked like he still had no intentions of going inside. “We'll be inside if ya need us.” He told him before leaving the car and going inside, leaving the younger behind. Nero stayed in the car for a few more minutes before sighing in defeat and getting out, leaving a sleeping Aglæca alone. It didn't take him very long to find the flashy red half-devil once he was inside the bar.

“Hey, look who gave in.” Dante bantered as Nero neared him. 

“I didn't give in, I just... decided not to stay in the car anymore.” He said defensively as he sat down in the bar stool beside Dante.

“Right, so you gave in.” He smirked before taking a sip from the glass that's in his hand. The bartender wasted no time in walking over to the two of them.

“What can I get for you, sir?” The bartender addressed Nero with the biggest, friendliest, and likely most fake smile he could muster. 

“Oh, um..” Nero looked around the bar frantically. Not being much of a drinker, he didn't really know the names of any alcoholic drinks. However, he didn't want to admit this in front of Dante, and instead looked for anything that looked remotely okay to drink. He looked down at Dante's glass briefly before looking back at the bartender. “I'll have what he's having.” The bartender nodded before grabbing and placing a glass from beneath the bar to in front of Nero.

“You sure about that, kid?” Dante's tone was that of a warning to Nero. 

“Yeah, it can't be that bad.” Nero said as the bartender poured a dark brown liquid into his glass. Hesitantly, he picked up the glass and slowly brought it up to his face. After sniffing the glass's contents, Nero immediately cringed, though he tried to casually play it off. Dante just smirked as he watched him, knowing that Nero had no idea what he just ordered. The brave young man took a deep breath before he brought the glass to his lips and unintentionally took a larger swig of the liquid than he wanted. As soon as the alcohol touched his throat, he began violently coughing, though he somehow managed to swallow the drink. Dante patted him on his back to help him get past the coughing.

“There there, it'll be alright. Got a bit of a sting to it, huh?” His smirk grew wider. 

“What the hell is that? Venom milked from a snake?” Nero managed to say after his coughing subsided, though his voice sounded raw now.

“Close, but no. That's whiskey. Burns at first, but you get used to it after a while.” He took another sip from his glass as he watched Nero recover. 

“Ugh... That's awful..” Nero said as he rubbed his throat, as if it'd actually help the pain.

“You don't have to drink it if it's too strong for you.”

“No, no it's okay, I can do it.” Nero now felt like he had to finish it, seeing it as challenge now since Dante suggested the drink was too much for him to handle. He can handle whatever Dante can handle, damn it! Taking another deep breath, Nero drank another, much smaller, swig of the whiskey. Dante just sat back and watched with amusement as Nero eventually downed most of his drink within the next 45 minutes, something that usually takes Dante maybe 15 mintutes. He observed that Nero was acting much different now, and the burn didn't seem to affect him anymore. He had been quiet for a while now too.

“Dante... I... I think something is wrong with Kyrie..” After hearing his slurred and slow speech, there was no doubt in Dante's mind now, Nero's definitely drunk. He didn't think that less than one glass of whiskey would get the kid drunk, but looking back he probably should've figured Nero wouldn't have much of a tolerance for alcohol.

“Oh, really?” Dante said mindlessly. Having been around plenty of drunk people before, he knew Nero would start rambling on meaninglessly.

“Yeah... when we left... she said she wanted to.... to talk to me everyday... but... she hasn't been in these last couple of days...”

“Whaddya mean?” 

“Today was the first time in.. in a couple of days that I've talked to her..” Dante looked over at Nero, actually paying attention to what he's saying now. “I left her lots of messages... but she never answered them.. and today we only talked for.. um..” Nero tried to think of how long they talked. “...for about 15 minutes before she had to go..”

“She's probably just busy, I wouldn't worry about it.” Dante tried to reassure him.

“She's never been too busy for me before...” Nero slurred. He sadly looked into his glass before throwing his head back and drinking the last of his whiskey. An awkward silence fell for the next few minutes since Dante didn't know what to say to him. Then, for no apparent reason, Nero looked over at Dante with a big smile on his face.

“You know, you're... you're a good person, I duncare what anybody says 'bout you, you're a good person..” 

“You're not half bad yourself, kid.” Dante returned his smile. Nero's eyes lit up like a kid who had just spied a present on Christmas day. Before Dante could stop him, Nero had wrapped his arms around him from his side in a big bear hug. Dante slightly grimaced at this unexpected and sloppy hug, mostly because Nero had put almost all his weight onto him and nearly tipped them both over, but he eventually gave in and put an arm around him once it was clear the drunk wasn't going to let go.

“Don worry, your secret is safe with me.” 

“My secret?” Dante looked down at the drunken teenager clinging to his side with an eyebrow raised in confusion. 

“Yah, your secret. How you're supposed to be this big, tough demon hunter, but underneath all the muscle," Nero tapped his finger on Dante's chest "you're just a big softy.” Dante laughed heartily at this.

“Oh no, my secret's out now.” He joked. By this time, Nero had let go of him and was attempting to shift his weight back onto his bar stool. “I doubt you'll even remember you have a secret to keep by tomorrow, though.” He said to himself as he watched Nero desperately grab onto the bar itself as he balanced himself. Unknown to the both of them, Jack was walking up to them from behind.

“It's getting kinda late, we might want to start heading out so we can get a motel before they're all booked.” While walking up to the other side of Nero, Jack noticed his erratic and unbalanced movements. “Whoa!” Jack exclaimed after sniffing the air around Nero's face, smelling for alcohol. “Dante, how much did you let him have?” 

“Just one. I told him to just take a few sips, but he insisted he could drink it all.” Dante smirked as he looked up at Jack. “I suppose he proved he could.” Jack sighed and shook his head.

“C'mon, you outta know you're too much of a light weight to drink whiskey.” Jack grabbed Nero's arm and put it around his shoulders. He then put his own arm around Nero. With reluctance, Nero stood up from his bar stool and was able to stay standing thanks to Jack's support. He slurred incomprehensible phrases as they exited the bar. After paying his and the kid's bill, Dante joined them outside the bar. 

“Noo... I want to sit up fronnttt..” Nero whined. By the time Dante made it outside, they had somehow already made it to the car. Jack had opened the back car door and had sat Nero down in the seat next to Aglæca.

“Only those who're not drunk can sit up front.” Jack told him before closing the back door. 

“Who's drivin'?” Dante asked as he approached the car.

“I suppose I will, I didn't drink anything hard and I only had a couple drinks.” Jack responded after thinking over it for a few seconds.

“Sounds good to me.” Dante said, secretly relieved that he doesn't have to drive again. He walked over to the passenger side of the door and got in.

“I'm afraid we may have to set up a tent rather than stay in a hotel.” Aglæca told them. He had woken up shortly after Jack and Nero exited the bar, due to Nero being noisy.

“What? Why?” Jack questioned, peering back at Aglæca as he got into the car.

“It's already late and it would be more time efficient if we were to set up a tent somewhere nearby, rather than going into town and looking around for a motel that might possibly still have a room left.” Aglæca looked over at Nero. “And since he's inebriated, it would be better to find somewhere to sleep for the night sooner rather than later.” Jack groaned to show his distaste for sleeping in a tent.

“I was really hoping we weren't going to have to use those damn tents...” He muttered before exiting the parking lot. They drove around for about 10 minutes before coming across an area off the road suitable for them to set up a tent. It was a wooded area off of an old dirt road that came off of the highway. Jack and Dante set up the tent while Aglæca gathered the sleeping bags and pillows from the car's trunk. Jack figured it'd be best if Nero was out of the way and in a safe place, so he had locked him in the car while they got everything set up.

“Nero, c'mon, get up, the tent's ready.” Jack shook Nero as he spoke. Nero, who had half-fallen asleep by now, moaned his complaints as he sat up in the car. With Jack's help, he was able to get out of the car without falling over. He allowed Jack to take him most of the way there without any protest, but then immediately stopped and shoved him off once they got near the tent. “What the hell, Nero?” Jack asked, now irritated.

Nero stumbled back a few steps, but managed to stay on his feet. “No! I'm not going in there! I saw Brokeback Mountain, I know what will happen if I go in there!” He protested.

“Damn it Nero, this isn't Brokeback Mountain. C'mon, please, I'd really like to just go to sleep.” He grabbed Nero's arm, but Nero quickly got his arm out from Jack's grip.

“Yeah I bet you'd like that, huh Jack?” Nero narrowed his eyes at Jack, suspicious of his intentions. Jack looked over at Dante, who had been watching them from a few feet away, with a pleading look. Dante nodded at him, and Jack retreated to the tent alone without saying another word. The half-drunk looked over at Dante, now confused with what's going on. 

The older man uncrossed his arms as he walked over to him. Nero uncharacteristically began to retreat away from him once Dante had gotten close, but before he could, Dante scooped him up and tossed Nero onto his shoulder. “This is what happens when you're being difficult.” He told him as Nero began to struggle as hard as he could, which actually wasn't all that hard since his mind was still fogged from the effects of the whiskey. It only took Dante a few seconds of resisting his struggles and keeping him on his shoulder before Nero gave up. “You calm now?” He assumed Nero's lack of resistance meant yes, so he went ahead and went inside the tent with Nero on his shoulder. 

The tent wasn't very tall, so in order to maneuver around, Dante had to get onto his knees. He let go of Nero, causing him to fall off of him and onto one of the sleeping bags below. Not expecting him to fall off like he did, Dante was initially worried Nero might've hurt himself falling, but his worry was erased once he noticed the kid was fast asleep. 

“Hopefully he won't be too hungover tomorrow.” Jack commented as he zipped up the tent's entrance. Dante nodded in silent agreement as he got into the sleeping bag beside Nero. Aglæca was already asleep on the other side of Nero, and Jack had claimed the sleeping bag next to Dante's. Being too tired to care, Dante only took off his shoes before settling into his sleeping bag for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Dante said once that he got so drunk that he proposed to a mop. I believe that was in the manga DMC series, but I can't remember which book it was in. But yes, he really did do that.
> 
> **Brokeback Mountain is a movie about two homosexual cowboys. Basically, Ennis, one of the cowboy's, is trying to sleep outside instead of sleeping in the tent with Jack, the other cowboy. Jack convinces Ennis to sleep in the tent, and, well... things get a little frisky. So in this, Nero is hesitant to go into the tent because 1) It's a tent, and 2) The person trying to convince him is named Jack. So, yeah... Corny references!


	11. Meeting the Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio comes face-to-face with the demon brothers.

“Turn off that damned light, Jack..” Nero mumbled from within his sleeping bag. Sometime during the night, he had crawled into the sleeping bag on his stomach, with the sleeping bag covering up his head as well. 

“That would be the sun, Nero.” Jack told him. He was busy packing up the tent's contents. Having left open the tent flap to make his trips to the car and back easier, the light shined down on Nero's sleeping bag. Despite Nero's head being covered up, the brightness of sun still managed to reach his eyes. Nero mumbled curses at the sun as he began to, very slowly, poke his head out from his sleeping bag. The second the uncensored light hit his eyes, he cringed back into the safety of his sleeping bag.

"C'mon kid, we don't got all day." Dante said before Nero felt his body being physically pushed onto his back. 

"I'll take as long as I want to take." Nero retorted before stubbornly rolling onto his side. 

"Alright, you can miss out on all the fun then. Your choice." With Nero's interest now piqued, he gathered up the courage to peek his head out from the sleeping bag. He spied Dante standing over him, hunched over since the tent is barely 5 feet tall. Jack had apparently already left the tent.

"What do you mean?" Nero asked, his eyes squinting at Dante since having them open any wider than they already are caused his head to throb. Dante stepped over Nero, going towards the tent's entrance.

"Take a look for yourself." He said after exiting the tent. While standing beside the entrance, he watched as Nero, with great effort, eventually sat up. Nero rubbed his eyes in an attempt to ease the throbbing in his brain before he was able to open his eyes semi-fully. He searched the outside area for anything abnormal, but his vision was so blurry and disoriented that he could only see a black object moving around in circles. It took him a few seconds, but his vision slowly cleared up enough to where he could see the black object was actually Aglæca pacing around in circles in front of the tent. He watched Aglæca briefly before looking up at Dante, clearly very confused. Dante, with his arms crossed on his chest, was also looking over at Aglæca.

"He's been pacing around in circles for a couple hours now, after he woke up Jack. He told Jack that his brothers are close and hasn't said anything else since then." Dante explained before moving his gaze over to Nero.

"They're close? What's that supposed to mean..?" Nero looked down and fiddled with his sleeping bag's zipper as he spoke, trying to unzip it.

"It means we're probably gonna have a fight on our hands soon." Jack answered for Dante as he approached the tent. "So you might wanna get up and help me pack." He advised him. Nero groaned irritably as he finally figured out how to unzip his bag.

\--------------------------------

A couple of hours later, the crew was all set to leave with everything having been packed into the trunk of the car. A still grouchy Nero sat in the front passenger seat, meanwhile Jack decided he should be the driver this time. The others, being Dante and Aglæca, sat in the backseat of the car. 

"So where the hell are we going?" Nero asked. His hangover had dissipated by now, but he was still quite irritable. Jack shrugged and looked behind himself, at Aglæca. 

"Where're we headin' to?" Jack asked him. Aglæca visibly looked conflicted, worried, and, most of all, scared. 

"I feel as though my brothers are just a few miles south of here. They probably know we're here." He responded. "Though, I'm not able to tell if the presence I feel is Nicephorus or Canicus, or if it's both of them." Aglæca took a few brief moments to contemplate what they should do before he resumed speaking. "There is still time to escape, if we are not yet ready to face them."

"Well, we've made it this far, there's no sense in turning back now." Dante said. "Besides, we can probably handle them without things getting too messy." Aglæca turned to look at Dante, his eyes widened with fear. Fear is a very unnatural looking expression for a demon, and this was especially true for Aglæca. If anything, fear looked even more unnerving and awkward on him, an older, more experienced demon who's personality usually radiated confidence and strength. Jack started the car and began to head back towards the highway as the preceding conversation began.

"You do not understand. Many have died in their attempts to destroy or hinder my brothers. Emperors, dictators, villagers, the old, the young; there is nobody who is safe from their wrath." He averted his gaze from Dante and instead chose to look out of the car's window beside him, lost in his own thoughts. "I have my suspicions that they may have had something to do with Sparda and Cælestis' death as well." He again looked over at Dante. "Of course, I do not know for sure, since I was trapped for so long. But, the last time I spoke to my brothers, they were still very much against Sparda. I doubt that their hatred would have dwindled down while I was away."

"It's a good thing we have you then." Jack spoke up, gaining Aglæca's attention. "You'll be able to tell us what their strengths and weaknesses are, right?"

"In theory, yes. Assuming they have not gained new strengths and lost old weaknesses." Aglæca thought for a few seconds before continuing. "I suppose I should tell you of Canicus first." Nero decided to turn around to look back at Aglæca, putting his full attention on him so that he could hopefully help his sore mind better comprehend what he might say. "As I've mentioned before, Canicus is reckless and is clumsy at times. He is easy to anger and the angrier he gets, the more reckless he becomes. However, he is also incredibly strong, and as he becomes more angry, his strength and determination also increases. He is more of a follower than a leader, so if my brothers are still with each other, Canicus will likely be very reliant on Nicephorus for instructions on what to do and how to fight. He should not be incredibly difficult to take down, simply lead him away from Nicephorus and take advantage of any of his slip-ups." Aglæca took a deep breath to recollect his thoughts. "Nicephorus will not be so easy. I'm sure you all remember that I have the ability to view memories of others, correct?" Dante, Jack, and Nero all shook their heads yes in response. "Well, Nicephorus has the opposite of what I am capable of. Occasionally, he is able to view future scenario's. I say occasionally because he cannot call upon these visions on command, they chose when to show themselves. These visions can either be about himself, about somebody he knows well, or about those that he chooses to victimize. However, no being is able to accurately predict what may happen in the future, and Nicephorus is no exception. He may get a visions that range from being simple visions of what he may eat for dinner that day, or visions of his victim's mother dying. Another aspect of his unique capability is similar to mine; he can show others these visions. I'm sure you can imagine how effective he is at torturing his victims into doing what he wishes because of that."

"Is there any way we can avoid seeing his visions?" Nero questioned. Aglæca nodded in correspondence with his answer.

"Yes. You may remember that, in order for me to show you the memories I have collected, I must know your name. More importantly, your first and last name. My brother is the same way; he requires your identity to show you his visions." He explained. "Unfortunately for you and Dante, Nicephorus likely can guess your last names because he knew Cælestis and Sparda and knows they both had a very unique feature for humans - white hair, that is - which is something that you two both have."

"Yeah, but how's he gonna know who's the son of who? I mean, look at these two." Jack grabbed Nero's chin and moved Nero's head left to right to showcase Nero's looks before Nero jerked his head out of Jack's grip, giving him an irritated glare afterwards. "They're pretty damn similar as far as looks go." 

"Keep your hands on the wheel!" Nero snapped at him. "Besides, we look completely different… I have a different jawline, cheekbones, my eyebrows are shaped differently.." Nero began naming off a list of physical differences in their faces. Dante just smirked at Nero's apparent irritation at being compared to him, deciding to just observe rather than get involved in the conversation and perhaps accidentally poke the fire that is Nero. After all, he can do that later, when the kid isn't so moody.

"Yeah, yeah, you have differences, but I mean you both have blue eyes and white hair, which, Cælestis and Sparda both had those traits too. How would Nicephorus know the difference between you two?" Jack clarified.

"Jack does raise a good point. Nevertheless, I would exercise great caution around Nicephorus if I were you two. He is very intelligent and may try to trick you into revealing your name, or he may observe your behaviors to see who is more likely to be the son of who, based on the behaviors he knows Cælestis and Sparda had."

"What about you?" Dante questioned. "Clearly he knows your name." Aglæca glanced over at him.

"Because I'm closely related to him, I am immune to his visions." He explained. Moments after that, Aglæca realized something. "Oh! Yes, I almost forgot to mention a weakness he has." Aglæca shook his head and rolled his eyes, amazed that he managed to forget. "His left arm was cut off just a few inches above his elbow a long, long time ago. That being said, his left side is vulnerable to attack. Though, I don't recommend getting too close to him anyways, he can easily slice you with the spines on his tail if he manages to whip his tail around quickly enough."

"That's kind of an important detail for you to forget about, isn't it?" Nero asked.

"Yes, yes.. I often forget about that, it wasn't too long after he sustained that injury that I became trapped beneath that church, so most of my memories of him are ones where he still had his left arm." He told them. 

"So, wait, let me get this straight. You're saying he's this powerful demon and whatnot, but yet somebody managed to get close enough to him to straight up cut off his arm? How does that even happen?" Jack questioned, seeing that something doesn't quite add up right.

"Well, even those who are seemingly invincible have downfalls. Nicephorus's greatest downfall is his mentality. He views humans as being weak, incapable of individual thought, and that their only purpose in life is to serve as pawns for so-called 'higher levels of life'." Aglæca sighed with sadness. "It's a view of humans that many demons share, unfortunately. Though, that’s not to say that humans don’t place untrue stereotypes upon demons. Even angels are not immune to prejudice. In reality, we're all ignorant of how life is for other beings." He paused to look over at the rearview mirror, so that he could look at Jack and vice versa while Jack is driving. "But back to my point, Nicephorus didn't trust humans, but he also didn't believe they could hurt him. One day, he tortured and corrupted a human who decided to fight back. The human ended up dying and Nicephorus ensured his closest relatives were either killed or driven insane, but of course that couldn't bring back his arm."

"Ha! I bet that pretentious asshole learned not to fuck around with humans again." Jack said, now feeling more confident that they can easily take care of Aglæca's brothers.

"Dontcha think that'd just piss him off more?" Dante spoke up.

"Take a left here." Aglæca told Jack, who did as he said. "But yes, Dante is most likely correct. Nicephorus doesn't learn lessons very easily, and he probably would have started resenting humans even more after that."

"I don't get it. How do you now suddenly know exactly where your brother is at?" Dante questioned, since Aglæca told Jack that he needed to take a left.

"Wait a minute, the all-knowing Dante doesn't know something?" Nero gasped before Aglæca could respond. Jack played along with Nero by grabbing his chest dramatically, pretending he is shocked.

"The apocalypse is near!" Jack shouted sarcastically. Dante chuckled at his own expense.

"Yeah, well, usually I get a weird feeling whenever there's a demon around. Not really like a sense, but.. Well yeah, I guess kinda like a sense. And Nero's glow stick isn't going crazy either." Dante responded lightheartedly. Before Nero could go off about how his arm isn't a glowstick, and by the angry expression on his face you could clearly tell he was about to do so, Jack interrupted. 

"What the hell are you doing looking at Nero's stick?! You shouldn't look at another man's stick, that's just rude!" Jack tried to keep a serious straight face, but ended up being unable to hold back from laughing soon after he finished speaking.

"Oh, well, it's not my fault! He doesn't cover it up anymore, so it's just out in the open and, you know, sometimes I can't help myself." Dante being Dante decided to play along with Jack, causing Jack to erupt in laughter.

"Please don’t encourage him.." Nero pleaded with Dante, obviously embarrassed by Jack's words.

"Oh man, sorry.. okay, go ahead, Aglæca." Jack said as he forced his laughter to die down.

"Well, the reason I know he's nearby and you two do not know is because he is my brother. Demons, or in your case, cambions, can sense other demons or those with demonic heritage. However, you're able to sense those who are genetically closer to you better than you can sense a demon with no connection to you. I can tell my brother is no more than a mile away from us right now, and though I don't know his exact location, I can tell where he is at by how strong of a sense I am feeling. But because you and Nero are not related to neither myself nor my brother, you will not know he is nearby until you're within several feet of him." Aglæca explained, to which Dante gave him a nod to relay that he understands now. They sat in silence for about a minute before Nero realized something.

"Wait, what's a cambion? You said demons and cambions?" 

"Uhh.. I think I read somewhere that cambions are the offspring of incubus's or succubus's?" Jack tried to explained.

"Yes and no. Traditionally, demons and humans mating is exceptionally rare, and it's even rarer for offspring to be produced. Though, because of the nature of incubus's and succubus's, half-demon half-human's usually originate from the unions that incubus's and succubus's engage in. Because of this, the term cambion use to be specifically for those offspring who were produced by those unions. However, cambion is really more of a broad term for any being that is half-demon half-human."

"Oh goodie, I have a label for myself now.." Nero grumbled, though he actually found this new information interesting.

"Oh shit. It's a dead end, what now?" Jack said, noticing that they were quickly coming up to a dead end in the street.

"Go ahead and go down to the end. We'll just walk the rest of the way." Dante told him. Jack did as he was told and drove down to the end, then stopped the car and put it in park. Simultaneously, everybody exited the car. Dante headed towards the back of the car, then popped the trunk open. He handed Jack and Nero their swords before finding and placing his own sword on his back. "Are you sure you don't want some kind of weapon?" Dante asked Aglæca, a bit concerned that he may not be able to protect himself well without weapons. Aglæca shook his head no.

"No, I have always relied on the weapons nature gave me." Aglæca lifted his hand and flicked his tail around briefly, showcasing the talons on his hands and the spikes on his tail, to name a couple of his damaging abilities. "So far they have held up fairly well." 

"Alright, if you insist." Dante said before closing the trunk of the car. "Lead the way then." He extended out his hand towards the direction of the wooded area next to them, assuming that Aglæca's brothers were not in the open field that was on the other side of them. Aglæca confirmed this assumption by going towards the nearby trees. Before entering the woods, he abruptly stopped and turned around, towards Nero, Dante, and Jack.

"Once we start getting within 50 feet of them, I want you all to stop and hide for just a few minutes. I want to approach them alone." Aglæca told them.

"Why? If both of them are here, they could easily get the upper hand and overpower you." Jack warned him.

"Yes, they could. But it has been a very, very long time since I've seen them. There is always hope that they decided to change their ways and go back to the peaceful life we use to live. Besides that, if I approach them first, you all will be able to observe them and look for any weaknesses that you could exploit. They will have their guard down if they think it's just me." Aglæca turned back towards the woods and continued walking the path he was originally taking before he stopped. The others soon followed behind him.

"So are we supposed to wait for a signal to come out or do we just wait until things turn sour?" Dante questioned.

"If I am sure that they're friendly, I will tell you to come out. However, if they're attacking me, then it's safe to say you can come out and help me." Aglæca responded.

"Wait a minute, we came out all this way and spent all this time looking for them, and you're telling me there's a chance we won't kill them?" Jack clearly did not like the idea of just letting them off the hook after spending so much time and energy on finding them.

"I won't kill something that doesn't want to kill me. We won't just let them go though, I don't trust them enough for that. We may take them back with us or we may take them somewhere else, I'm not sure. But letting them go isn't an option." Aglæca reassured him. Minutes of silence passed, then Aglæca suddenly stopped walking, causing the others to stop as well. He observed the area around himself carefully, then got down on all fours and continued forwards with more caution than he had been exerting before. He didn't explain this sudden shift in posture, but it could be assumed that walking in this way either helps him pinpoint a more precise estimate on where his brothers are at, or it could just be that walking on all fours helps him feel safer as he approaches potential enemies. It was a very odd sight to the others to see Aglæca on all fours, rather than being bipedal. Unlike humans, Aglæca's limbs are equal in length, enabling him to walk both bipedal-ly and quadrupedal-ly with relative ease. Not surprisingly, Aglæca not walking upright was a bit unnerving, as it made him seem more beast than human. 

"There must just be one of them. He's stationary too." Aglæca said both to himself and to the others before he resumed walking. Jack grasped the handle of his sword, prepared to swing at anything if necessary. Nero also clutched the handle of his revolver in preparation. Dante, however, didn't seem very concerned and decided against grabbing any of his weapons. Over the next several minutes, Aglæca would go through several cycles of briefly pausing, checking his surroundings, then changing directions and beginning to walk again. Without warning, Aglæca stopped completely as he stared straight ahead of himself. He stayed like this for a few moments before he held up his hand, silently telling the others to stay. As Aglæca very slowly and very cautiously proceeded down the path in front of him, the others quietly separated from one another to allow them to have a greater viewpoint of the area Aglæca was headed towards, rather than them being all bunched up together. Dante decided to hide his body behind a large tree, while Nero decided to hide behind a bush that was a bit of a ways away from Dante, but he still within Dante's view. Jack managed to quietly scurry up a tree that was next to the tree Dante was behind, allowing Jack to have a clearer view of the surroundings. Should a situation arise, their positions meant that Jack would be able to warn Dante, who would then warn Nero. In contradiction to the tense feeling in the air, the land felt to be at peace. The birds were chirping, the butterflies were fluttering around, and the squirrels were scampering around and collecting food in preparation for the upcoming winter. All were blissfully unaware of the potentially dangerous situation that may soon unfold. 

Aglæca approached a small clearing in the woods. In the middle of this clearing was a small pond, and sitting upright on the edge of this pond was a familiar black figure. Luckily for Aglæca, the figure had its back facing him, which allowed Aglæca to approach the figure a bit more for a clearer view without giving away his position. The creature was very similar in appearance to Aglæca, with a few exceptions. Perhaps the most obvious difference between the two of them is that Aglæca was noticeably smaller in both size and stature than the other demon, most likely because Aglæca is still recovering. He too had wings, though they were in fairly better condition than Aglæca obviously battle-worn wings. The being had his spiked tail wrapped around his left side, with the tip of the tail soaking in the pond. His wings were folded and had been allowed to droop down to the ground, giving the creature a non-aggressive appearance. Though he could not see what he was doing, Aglæca assumed that, by the being's movements, it was either bathing in the pond or drinking from it. Upon closer inspection, Aglæca noticed another difference between him and the being beside the pond. Aglæca's horns are linear, and then are curled at the end. Meanwhile, the other's horns are completely curled and extremely thick, much like a ram's horns. Though he could not see any more identifying features, Aglæca could now recognize who the figure is. Before Aglæca had the chance to say anything, the other demon spoke up.

"I'm surprised. You actually managed to escape."


	12. The Beast's Demise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicephorus meets his death.

" _I'm surprised_. You actually managed to escape." The creature's voice was similar in pitch and in deep tone to Aglæca's, but it had a certain underlying, mischievous tone that starkly contrasted Aglæca's warmer, more friendly voice. Much to Nero's and the other's relief, they were close enough to the scene to mostly hear what was going on between Aglæca and his brother.  
   
"Only by sheer dumb luck, no thanks to yourself." Aglæca retorted.  
   
"Oh, do not hate me, brother. It was what was necessary at the time." Throughout all this, the creature never turned around to look at Aglæca; he didn't even stop his activities with the water. "I contemplated multiple times to free you, but I was unable to locate the area Canicus and I buried you in."  
   
"A church had been erected above the ground, in a town now named Fortuna. A town that was supposedly ruled by Sparda." Aglæca informed him. This caused Nicephorus to roar with a mocking laughter.  
   
"Your beloved master ruled the ground above you, yet made no effort to release you. How ironic!" Finally, Nicephorus turned his head to the side, enabling him to see Aglæca and vice versa. The years had been rough on him, and though none were recently made, you could see several small grayish slices on his face, indicating he had earned himself some scars in the past. While Aglæca's pupils were similar in shape to a human's pupils, Nicephorus's pupils had more in common with a cat's pupils.  
   
"He was not my master. I worked for same cause as he did; the same cause that you once worked towards." Aglæca defended.  
   
"I see you are still blind. You were merely a puppet in his efforts to control mankind. How else might you explain why he did not unearth you? You were no longer of use to him, you were garbage to him and you and I both know he was grateful we disposed of you for him." With this, Nicephorus turned his body around to completely face Aglæca. He stood up, but not upright. He, like Aglæca, was also on all fours. This posture, though, seemed much more natural to Nicephorus than it does to Aglæca, despite the fact that Nicephorus is missing half of his left arm.  
   
"For the same reason you did not, because he did not know of my location?" Aglæca's tone indicated that he wasn't having any of Nicephorus's bullshit. "Your venomous tongue and your tricks don't work on me, Nicephorus. So cut the crap." He said bluntly. Whatever fear he may have had before has clearly either dissipated or else Aglæca is doing a good job of masking it.  
   
"I bit feisty, are we?" Nicephorus smirked. He began to slowly approach Aglæca, using his left wing as a crutch in place of his half missing left arm. When he was within about 50 feet of Aglæca, Nicephorus stopped.  
   
"Tell me, why is it you despise Sparda? You once fought by his side. Is there something you know that I do not? Please, enlighten me." Aglæca figured that allowing Nicephorus to think that he may persuade Aglæca to change sides might make Nicephorus trust him a bit more. This, in turn, would allow Aglæca to approach Nicephorus more closely, which would give him a better chance of landing a damaging blow on Nicephorus. The larger demon scoffed at him.  
   
"Sparda was a murderous traitor who went around slaying our kin, and even attempted to murder our Lord, Mundus! A demon with no loyalties, not even to the one who gave him power, is a demon you cannot trust. Mundus tells me that Sparda was planning to take over both the human and the demon realm. After gaining control of those two worlds, he planned to use human and demonic forces to take over the realm of the Angels. How can you stand by the side of somebody who seeks world domination?" As he progressed in his rant, Nicephorus became more and more visibly angry and passionate, though not at Aglæca. Aglæca found this information interesting.  
   
"Mundus told you this, did he? When was this?" The weaker demon questioned.  
   
"Not too long before Sparda began his rebellion. Canicus and I were investigating a nearby cave, upon Sparda's request." Nicephorus growled briefly in a low, deep rumble, as if disgusted that he had to say Sparda's name. "He said he had received a tip from somebody that that the cave might be harboring evil demonic forces, and so we offered to look in it for him. We found nothing there." He said, adding emphasis to 'nothing'. "Some great leader, he was so paranoid that his true intentions were going to be foiled, that he sent us out on a wild goose chase.. But it was while we were on that mission that we became enlightened to Sparda's plans."  
   
"In that cave?" Aglæca asked, for clarification.  
   
"Yes. We had reached the end, and suddenly it became clear to both Canicus and myself. Sparda was no hero. Everything became so clear after that…. But we did not know the full extent of his true plans until Mundus told us so, a few days after that." Now, Aglæca understood. The cave was a trap. Somebody, likely one of Mundus's henchmen, 'tipped off' Sparda about the potentially dangerous cave. Sparda was likely the intended victim for this trap, but Nicephorus and Canicus were instead victimized when they showed up at the cave in place of Sparda. The cave was most likely a site of some sort of ritual, intended to call upon forces that would warp the minds of whomever entered. After their minds had become corrupted, Mundus approached them, and completed the process of brainwashing them.  
   
"I see. But if that is so, why did you kill Sparda's human supporters? Was it not you who said humans should not be punished for our affairs?" Nicephorus scoffed at this question.  
   
"They were no better than Sparda himself! Aiding a murderer makes you a murderer by default. They all had to die. Less people fighting for Sparda's false ideas makes both the human and demonic worlds a safer place. That is why we had to seal you away. I did not wish to do so, but what other choice did we have?" He seemed genuinely remorseful for sealing away his own brother.  
   
"I suppose you could have done worse." Though resentful for being forced to rot away in an underground chamber for over a millennium, Aglæca was thankful they decided against directly killing him. "I must ask you, were you and our brother responsible for Sparda and Cælestis's death?" Upon hearing this question, Nicephorus took a few moments to think.  
   
"Our brother has been dead for a few centuries now, so no, he did not partake in that." Nicephorus informed him. This left Aglæca visibly stunned. "Ah, but what does it matter anymore? They're all dead, the world is clean again." With this statement, Nicephorus breathed in deeply and exhaled with a satisfied expression, as if relieved and happy that they are gone. "Well.. As clean as this world can ever be."  
   
"What… what happened to Canicus?" Aglæca clearly could not understand how his other brother could have died. The larger demon's previously pleased expression quickly turned to an expression of disgust.  
   
"He was killed. By a _human_!" Nicephorus scoffed. "How disgraceful… Any higher being that falls to a human deserves death. He was clearly weak and would have died soon anyways."  
   
"You and I both know Canicus was, physically speaking, stronger than the both of us combined. It is more likely that you finally managed to anger the wrong human. When will you own up to your mistakes, brother?" Aglæca questioned. This clearly angered his brother.  
   
"I have made no mistakes, you are the foolish one!" Nicephorus began to slowly pace himself towards Aglæca in an aggressive matter. Aglæca, being currently weaker than Nicephorus, responded by instinctively hunkering down his body closer to the ground, making himself seem smaller and not challenging Nicephorus's power. Because of this, Nicephorus did not harm Aglæca once he was close to him, apparently satisfied with Aglæca's show of submission while he towered over him.  
   
"I mean you no disrespect." He quickly stated, glancing up at his stronger counterpart. "We all make mistakes, I have made quite of a few myself. But it's not too late for you to change your violent ways back to the peaceful life we all once led. I can help you." Aglæca offered.  
   
"I do not need your help. It is not my fault you refuse to acknowledge the truth about that traitorous Sparda, you are the one who needs to change your ways!" Nicephorus shouted at him, though he did not lunge at his brother. The smaller demon looked at Nicephorus with a deeply sorrowful expression before lowering his gaze to the ground.  
   
"I am sorry I was unable to save you from Mundus's deadly grip. I am even more sorry to those who perished because I was unable to help you and our brother… I do not blame you, how could I blame somebody with no control over their own mind?" Aglæca told him. This seemed to just confuse Nicephorus, rather than evoking a specific emotion from him. "Nevertheless, even if you are my own kin…. I can't let you continue to wreak havoc on innocent lives." And so, before Nicephorus could process what had been said, he suddenly found himself lying on his back on the ground with Aglæca's sharp teeth digging into his leathery skinned neck. He made a loud sound that could only be assumed as being a demon's deep, distorted version of screaming. Though Aglæca did not actually give them a signal to come out, the group took Nicephorus's screaming as a sign that they should go ahead and abandon their positions to join Aglæca.  
   
After taking a couple seconds to process what happened, seconds that Aglæca took advantage of to try and disable him as much as he could by biting deeper and shaking his head side to side to further tear his flesh, Nicephorus became enraged. He placed his rough, taloned feet on Aglæca's soft underbelly and, with all the strength he could muster, kicked his brother off of him. In the process of doing so, he tore deep gashes into Aglæca's stomach and unintentionally damaged his own neck further, as Aglæca's teeth tore deeper wounds into his skin as he was being flung off. He immediately wrapped his hand around his neck to prevent blood loss, though that did not stop the red fluid from slipping out between his fingers. Unluckily for Aglæca, his teeth did not seem to tear deep enough to sufficiently injure his brother.  
   
Aglæca, on the other hand, was sent flying into the air and did not stop until his back collided with a nearby tree. He fell lifelessly onto the ground on his stomach, though he was not dead, only stunned from the high-velocity impact. Slowly, he placed each of his limbs below himself and was able to prop himself up from the ground. Blood dripped unrestricted from his wounds, though he didn't seem to notice his injuries.  
   
"How dare you attack me!" Nicephorus gruffly shouted at him as he stood upright, allowing him to charge towards him. Aglæca looked at his brother helplessly as he tried to move away, though he was having difficulty since his body was still recovering from the shock of being thrown into a tree. To Aglæca's relief, Nero came running out from the nearby woods and quickly placed himself between Nicephorus and his brother. This sudden appearance confused Nicephorus just long enough for Nero to reel his arm back and slam his devil bringer into Nicephorus's chest, sending him flying back, much like how Nicephorus did to Aglæca. He soon disappeared from view as he flew into the treetops. Soon after, Jack and Dante came running out from the same area Nero had just came out of a few seconds ago.  
   
"Geez… how can a person be so damn fast.." Jack huffed about Nero, his body not use to having to run so fast in such a short amount of time. Though, Nero was too busy looking back at Aglæca to pay attention to Jack.  
   
"He's bleeding." Nero informed them after he noticed the blood dripping down from Aglæca's stomach. He looked over at Jack. "Make sure they're not too deep." He told him.  
   
"Yes, sir." Jack smirked, mocking him since Nero told him rather than asking him. He went over to and kneeled down beside Aglæca and began assessing his injuries. Nero, with a serious expression, quirked an eyebrow at Jack, clearly not amused that he's joking around during a fight. Dante, on the other hand, is clearly amused by Nero's serious behavior. This earned Dante a scornful glare from said person, but it seems as though this only amused Dante more. The younger man rolled his eyes and decided he would ignore them both in favor of looking for signs of Nicephorus reappearing.  
   
Seconds of silence ticked by before the group heard a loud laughter coming from the woods in front of them. This caught Aglæca's attention, as he quickly rose to his feet in an upright position, despite Jack not yet being done with tending to his wounds. The old demon readied himself by stretching out his wings, which reached an impressive 12 foot wingspan, and preparing his hands and tail to swipe at anything coming his way. It wasn't long after they first heard the laughter that Nicephorus came out from the woods that he had been flung into.  
   
"Oh, brother…" He tried to calm himself, as he was practically keeled over with laughter, unable to even keep his eyes open. "You have resorted to human masters, now that Sparda is gone? I had no idea you were so desperate for protection! How pathetic!" Jack, now standing beside Aglæca, glanced over at the demon to make sure he wasn't becoming angered by Nicephorus's words. However, instead of looking angry, Aglæca had a smug look on his face instead as he watched his brother laugh.  
   
"Nicephorus, open your eyes so you may see the truth." He told him. Nicephorus took a few more seconds to get his last laughs out before he looked up at Aglæca and the others. His eyes automatically were drawn to Nero, who is standing in front of Aglæca, and Dante, who is standing a few feet to the left of Nero. Nicephorus stood in complete and utter disbelief as he stared at the two half-demons.  
   
"This… this is not possible…" He whispered to himself. "There's no way either Sparda's or Cælestis's bloodlines survived!" His deeply confused expression was slowly changing into anger. "Vergil… his mind was warped as a child, and he perished long ago anyways! It is possible he reproduced, but his mind was so engulfed with the thirst of power… it's improbable he would have taken the time to have offspring…" At this point, Nicephorus was mostly talking to himself, trying to figure out what went wrong. "There was Nero, as well… I could not convince myself to kill an innocent newborn, even if his blood was dirty, but he could not have survived.. Cælestis ran with him, but she was confirmed to have died and the child was nowhere to be found. In a forest, nonetheless. No, he did not survive, a wolf likely found him to be a good snack…" Aglæca and the others couldn't really hear what Nicephorus was saying though, since he was speaking softly to himself and wasn't very close to them.  
   
"You have failed, Nicephorus." Aglæca told him. Nicephorus stopped rambling to himself and instead chose to stare down his brother with hatred practically burning out from his eyes.  
   
"I do not fail. The ones marked for death have died, I succeeded in that." He then turned his attention to the two white-haired men. "But, clearly, there were more offspring than I originally believed." His words were laced with a tone of disgust and anger. Dante chose to flash the demon a smirk, as if to taunt him, meanwhile Nero chose to retain the serious expression he's had during this time. This caused Nicephorus to briefly look at Dante with a particular interest. "Well.. It doesn't matter." His previously angered expression was replaced with a more smug appearance. "They will die too, just like their mommies and daddies." Without a second to spare, Nicephorus began charging at them again, specifically at Nero, since he is directly in front of Aglæca. In response, Nero prepared his devil bringer for another hit at Nicephorus. Knowing that Nero could easily handle a charging beast, the others did not make a special effort to protect him.  
   
Nicephorus isn't able to reach too fast of speeds, due to his size, but he was fast enough to where it wasn't long before he was within feet of Nero. Now that he was within Nero's range of attack, the young man swung his devil bringer's fist in Nicephorus's direction. To his surprise, he missed, and found himself punching the air rather than a body. In fact, after realizing he had missed, he then realized that Nicephorus was nowhere in front of him! Confused, he turned around to look at the area behind him, in search of the demon. Instead of seeing Aglæca standing behind him, like he was before, he saw Aglæca fighting to free himself from Nicephorus, who is now flying away from them. He stood there, bewildered, for a couple seconds before it all clicked; without realizing it, Nero must have briefly closed his eyes while striking his fist towards Nicephorus, which gave the demon just enough time to jump over him without Nero realizing it. Thus enabling Nicephorus access to Aglæca, who he grabbed before taking to the sky. Aglæca probably didn't think his brother would jump over Nero and had no time to react and escape Nicephorus.  
   
"Oh that's just great. Now how the hell are we supposed to help? I can't exactly fly." Jack asked as he watched the scene in the sky with disbelief.  
   
"The only thing we really can do. Sit back and wait for them to come back down." Dante said as he began to leisurely walk in the same direction that Nicephorus was flying away in, seemingly unconcerned that their friend was just carried away by his maniacal brother.  
   
"We can't just do nothing!" Nero exclaimed, quickly catching up to Dante in a more hurried fashion.  
   
"Oh? What do you suggest we do?" Dante looked over at him, flashing him a cocky smirk.  
   
"Well… I don't know.." Nero admitted after reviewing the possibilities in his head for a couple of seconds. He looked very concerned for Aglæca as he looked up into the sky to see Aglæca desperately trying to pry Nicephorus's hand off of him. Dante observed his worried expression.  
   
"No worries. They won't be up there for long anyways." He reassured him. "Just look at him." Dante said as he pointed up towards the two demons in the air, causing the other two hunters to look up into the sky as well. Nicephorus had stopped trying to fly away, and is instead just hovering in one spot, too focused on trying to keep a firm grasp on his brother to be able to maintain enough coordination to continue flying away. Despite this, Nicephorus was still at good 400 feet in the air, making a rescue mission impossible. "If Aglæca keeps it up, they won't be in the air for long."  
   
"Yeah? And what about when he finally lets go and Aglæca comes plummeting down towards the ground?" Nero questioned.  
   
"He's got wings."  
   
"But they're all torn up." Jack reminded them. The elder hunter just shrugged at this.  
   
"Then maybe he can't fly, but they're intact enough to where they'll act like a parachute once he starts dropping." Dante explained. "Or you could just catch him before he hits the ground."  
   
"Well, no point in standing around then. Might as well rest until they bring the fighting back down to our level." As he spoke, Jack walked over to a large boulder-like rock and sat on it. He stabbed his sword into the ground in front of himself. He rested his hands on the pommel of his sword while watching the two in the air. It wasn't long before the other two hunters joined Jack. For what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was no more than 30 seconds, they all stared up into the air, watching and waiting for one of them to come crashing towards the ground again. Then, suddenly, one of them began to descend back to Earth. Immediately after, the other one began to chase the one that was already flying back to the ground. The group of hunters stood up, carefully watching the two descending demons to see where they will land. As the demons came closer, it became clear that it was Nicephorus chasing Aglæca towards the ground.  
   
"He's not slowing down." Nero pointed out about Aglæca, though he and his brother were rapidly approaching the ground.  
   
"He might not be able to, his wings probably aren't in good enough shape to slow him down." Said Jack.  
   
"No, he's trying to crash land, his brother is faster than him and if he slows down to make a safe landing, he'll get caught again." Nero observed the two falling demons. "Shit.. He's not going to make it to the ground in time, Nicephorus is quickly gaining on him." He realized, quickly bolting towards where they are falling. Jumping into the air as he ran, he tackled Aglæca just before he was about to hit the ground, hitting him with enough force to fling them both several feet away before crash landing. Though, luckily for Aglæca, this crash landing was much softer than the one he was planning on. Nicephorus, who had been immediately behind Aglæca, fell full-force onto the ground, head first, knocking him unconcious. Seeing the fight was already over, Jack and Dante took their time walking towards them.  
   
Groaning from the pain of crash landing, Nero released Aglæca and sat up, rubbing his numb head as he did so. "Thank you." Aglæca spoke hoarsely. Turning his gaze to Aglæca, Nero realized how injured Aglæca really is. Along with the abdomen wounds that he had received before taking flight, he several claw gashes along his body, including one deep wound that had been made along the side of his face.  
   
"We need to stop this bleeding right now." Nero said urgently as he removed his coat. Now able to see the wounds and now realizing that Aglæca was still in trouble, Dante quickly made his way over to him and Nero. Meanwhile, Jack went to Nicephorus to make sure he'll stay down while the others patch up Aglæca.  
   
As Dante applied pressure to the worst of Aglæca's wounds to help temporarily prevent more bleeding, Nero tore up his own coat into thick strips. "What were you thinking? That hard of a landing after this much blood loss would have killed you!" He lectured as he began covering and wrapping Aglæca's wounds with his coat strips.  
   
"I'm aware. It would have also killed Nicephorus as well. He is much weaker, more fragile than I expected. These many years of fending for himself have not been kind to him. This much fighting, even though it may seem like only a little, exhausted him. He's also lost quite a bit of blood from his neck. If the fall did not break his neck, then he will at least bleed out before regaining consciousness."  
"Why kill yourself in order to kill somebody who's dying anyways?" Nero questioned as he finished wrapping Aglæca's wounds with his make-shift bandages.

"Oh, he was not dying. He may be physically weaker now, but his mental state is the same. He can still order others to do his bidding. Before I was sealed away, he even had his own little army of those who believed in him and would do his work for him. It's very likely that he has many, many more following him now. That is why I requested your assistance, I has figured his minions would be closely guarding him. Luckily, we caught him while he was bathing." Nero glanced up at Aglæca with a confused expression. "Nicephorus has always preferred to bathe alone. He probably ordered his followers to stay behind in a nearby area while he bathed alone." Aglæca explained.

"So this isn't it?" Dante asked. "There's more of them that need to be taken care of?"

"No, we can leave them be. I don't know how many or how strong they are, it is best if we take care of Nicephorus and leave the area as soon as possible. They believe me to be dead, and will not suspect that we were the ones who killed him. Eventually, they will give up seeking vengeance and will go back to the underworld." 

"Are you sure? We can't get rid of them just to be sure they won't figure it out?" Dante questioned, secretly wanting to fight them since it's been a few weeks since he last fought a demon, and especially since he didn't get a chance to participate in fighting Nicephorus. 

"I agree with Aglæca. He's pretty badly injured, if we don't take him back to Fortuna and treat him as soon as we can, he'll get an infection or lose too much blood." Nero told him, with Dante responding to him with a disappointed look. "I'm sure you've got plenty of jobs to catch up on when you get back to your shop anyways." He reminded him, to which Dante replied with a displeased groan. Nero just shook his head and turned his attention back to ensuring Aglæca's bandages are on properly.

"There's just no pleasing you, is there?"

"Well, actually, there's plenty of things that please me, but I don't think now is the time to talk about that." Dante smirked. Before Nero was able to voice his disapproval, Jack interrupted him.

"I think Nicephorus is dead. His neck is absolutely covered in blood and I can't feel a pulse anymore." Jack is currently kneeled over Nicephorus's body, with two fingers on his wrist, feeling for a pulse.

"When did you last feel a pulse?" Nero questioned as he stood up. Dante placed an arm around Aglæca, who in turn placed his arm around Dante. Together, with Aglæca almost entirely relying on Dante, they stood up.

"A minute ago. It might just be really faint, I can't tell." Jack said. The young, white-haired hunter looked at Aglæca.

"What should we do? Leave him be and let him die by himself, or…?" He didn't want to verbally ask Aglæca if they should finish him off. The old demon took a minute to contemplate their options.

"You should return to the car and prepare to leave. I will stay behind for a few minutes." Noticing Nero's concerned look, Aglæca spoke again. "Don't worry about me, I know there are others nearby, but I will know if they're getting close." With that, Nero nodded his head, and he and Jack left going in the direction of where they left the car. The elder hunter stayed behind briefly with Aglæca, to help him walk over to Nicephorus's body, before he too took his leave. 

"Dante…" Aglæca spoke up before he was too far away, causing Dante to stop and turn towards him. "If I am not back in 15 minutes, please come looking for me." Dante took a few seconds before he nodded at him understandably, then turned back around and continued walking. 

\----------------------------------------------  
"It's been 20 minutes now." Jack said, worried. He, Nero, and Dante were all inside the car. Upon getting into the backseat with Nero, Dante relayed the message Aglæca had given him.

"Just give him a couple more minutes, he might just be taking a bit to walk to the car." Nero reassured him, though he too was concerned. Tense, anxiety-filled seconds passed before Dante spoke up.

"There he is." He pointed towards an area outside of the car to clarify. Both Jack and Nero immediately looked over and searched for Aglæca. Just like Dante had said, Aglæca can be seen staggering towards the car. When Nero went to open his door to go assist Aglæca, the elder held up his hand, telling Nero to stop. Though injured, he wanted to at least walk to the car by himself. And so, he did. He was huffing and puffing by the time he sat down inside the car, the exertion from walking having taken his remaining energy.

"You can rest while we drive back. It's going to be a long ride anyways." Jack told him, though Aglæca seemed way ahead of him and appeared to already be falling asleep. 

\----------------------------------------------  
An hour into their drive home, roughly 2pm.

"I wish we had thought to bring some damn bandages, now I don't have a coat…" Nero complained. He had his arms crossed tightly across his chest, uncomfortable with his arms being exposed due to his sleeveless undershirt. Since he's driving, Jack looked into the rearview mirror so he could look at Nero. He smirked broadly. 

"Well, on the bright side, now you can apply for a job to be a model." Nero rolled his eyes at Jack's remark and decided to avert his eyes out the car window out of embarrassment. "Or a pornstar. They get paid more." With that, Nero sharply looked over at Jack with a mortified look on his face. Dante, who is looking out of his car window with his elbow on the door and his chin resting on his palm, smirked. He wasn't watching Nero, but knew by his silence that he must be giving Jack a funny look. To avoid being punched in the arm by a certain half-devil, he casually covered part of his mouth with his fingers to cover up his smirk.

"I'm not that desperate for money." Nero scoffed.

"Yeah, yeah.. Demon hunting is enough to pay the bills I suppose." He said. A long period of silence ensued afterwards. 

\----------------------------------------------

Three hours into their drive, roughly 4pm.

"Hey Nero?" Jack called.

"Hm?"

"How's Kyle? I haven't heard from him in a while." Jack asked. "Kyle is Nero's old boyfriend." He explained to Dante, who looked over at Nero with a confused yet amused expression. Nero sigh deeply.

"Not my boyfriend, just an old friend from school." Nero said, irritated.

"Oh right, I forgot about that story." Dante realized. 

"He's doing good though. About to get married too." Jack turned and looked back at Nero with a surprised expression. 

"Married? I didn't get an invitation!" Jack exclaimed.

"Keep your eyes on the road!" Nero shouted at him, and so Jack turned back to look at the road again. "Last I heard they're still planning, they don't have a date yet." He explained.

"Oh, okay." Jack said, relieved he wasn't purposely excluded. "You know you can't go, right?" Confused, Nero questioned him.

"What? Why?" 

"Don't you remember the last gay wedding you went to?" Jack asked. Dante, curious as to what Nero could've done, looked over at Nero. For about a minute, Nero expressed all sorts of confused expressions, until he finally realized what Jack meant.

"Oh come on! That was five years ago!" 

"That's no excuse!" Jack countered.

"…What happened?" Dante asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Well, you see, Nero made an ass of himself." Jack began. Nero crossed his arms defensively and sunk into his seat. "This was the wedding of an old buddy of Willow's, and this friend was gay. He was also Jewish, and you know how they throw rice at Jewish weddings?" Dante nodded. "Well, this guy here-" Jack gestured to Nero. "-threw Skittles instead of rice." Dante turned to look at Nero with a surprised expression.

"Really?" Dante questioned him.

"I didn't know that bowl of rice was for us to grab a handful to throw it!" Nero defended himself. "When everybody started throwing stuff into the air, I just threw what was in my hand, and I happened to be eating skittles at the time.." 

"What on earth did you think that rice was for?" Jack asked, holding back laughter.

"I don't know… Maybe the chief left it out or something…" 

"That doesn't explain why you gasped in pain whenever they kissed, though. You gasped so loud even the Rabbi gave you a funny look!" Nero shot up to sit straight in his seat and pointed a finger at Jack.

"Hey! You know damn well that the little twerp who was sitting beside us, talking throughout the entire ceremony, jumped off the seat and stepped on my foot!" Nero said defensively. Meanwhile, Jack just laughed at him.

"Yeah, I know that, but I don't think everybody else did, not by how they were treating you afterwards." 

"Whatever, at least the brides were understanding…"

\----------------------------------------------

Six hours into their drive, roughly 7pm. 

"Geez, Dante, haven't you eaten enough?" Nero questioned. The gang had gone through a drive through to get dinner. Nero and Jack were only a quarter through eating a burger, Aglæca was half way, but Dante had already eaten one burger and was working on a second.

"What? I'm starving! We skipped lunch." Dante said before taking another bite.

"Yeah, we all skipped lunch, but you don't see us running through all the food!" Nero told him

"Oh hush Nero, you eat at least two burgers too, not including fries." Jack reminded him

"But I at least pace myself…" Nero muttered to himself.

"You know the rules, no picking fights while I drive!" Jack teased him, to which Nero quietly kept eating his food.

\----------------------------------------------

Eight hours into their drive, roughly 9pm. 

Dante and Nero were passed out in the back. Dante was leaned up against the car door, his head resting against the car window. Nero, on the other hand, had first fallen asleep leaning up against his car door, but after a little while of moving around, stretching out, and so on, he was now in a very different position. He was stretched out on the backseat on his side, his legs curled up onto the seat and his head resting on Dante's knees. Luckily for him, he was facing the back of the seat in front of himself, rather than facing Dante.

"Alright, if I don't get some rest, I'm gonna end up passing out at the wheel." He told the others as he pulled to the side of the road. Hearing no response, he spoke again.

"Nero! Wake the hell up and-" Upon looking back into the backseat to wake up Nero, he saw the position Nero is in and quickly silenced himself.

"What is wrong? Is he okay?" Aglæca asked, concerned by Jack's sudden silence.

"Shhh, the baby is sleeping." Jack joked. "This is just too cute." He commented, smiling widely. It didn't take long for his smile to turn devious though. Quietly, Jack took out his phone and took a few pictures of Nero. "I think this is enough to blackmail him into giving me his new headphones." Jack said happily before putting away his phone.

"HEY!" Jack shouted at them, which caused the both of them to jump from being startled awake. "Nero, I need you to drive for a bit so I can rest." Dante, who hadn't realized where Nero was, simply started to stretch and begin the process of waking up. Nero didn't seem to realize it either at first. He rubbed at his eyes for a few seconds, then placed his hand, unknowingly, on Dante's thigh in order to prop himself up. Noticing that what he thought would be the soft, smooth material from the car under his hand was instead a leathery, more rounded surface, he looked at what he had grasped. Immediately, he shot upright into his seat.

"Oh God!" He exclaimed with disgust. Meanwhile, Dante and Jack just started laughing.

"You know, most people take me to dinner before they start getting handsy." Dante teased him. Nero immediately exited the car and had his face buried in his hands for a minute or two before proceeding to the driver's side. His laughter having died down, Jack got out of his seat and took Nero's place in the back.

"Not a single word. I'm already traumatized." Nero said as he sat in the driver's seat, his tone indicating he was absolutely ashamed of himself.

"I've never had any complaints before." Dante smirked. Nero shot Dante a warning glare, and Dante heeded this warning by not saying anything else.

\----------------------------------------------

Sixteen hours into their drive, roughly 5am the next day, July 18th.

"Wow Nero, you were able to drive for that long without sleep?" Jack asked as he began to stur from his slumber, amazed that Nero is still awake and driving. The other two were still asleep.

"I stopped a couple times for coffee and I'm dead tired, but yeah. We're almost to the place where we rented the car." Nero told him. Jack looked around, out of the car windows to try and see where they're at.

"How far are we?" He questioned. Nero didn't initially respond to him, instead he pulled into the parking lot of a building.

"We're here." Nero said, pointing towards the sign that labelled the building as a car rental business. Jack looked over at the car's clock and gasped.

"It's 5am? It's about to be light outside! How are we supposed to sneak Aglæca back into Fortuna city?"

"It won't start getting light out for another hour, which is about how long it'll take to walk to the ferry and be taken to the Fortuna docks, so we can easily sneak him that far if he wears Dante's coat as cover. Getting him back to headquarters and safely into the basement is another story though…"


	13. Sneaking Back Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to sneak the old demon back to headquarters... but will their luck of going around undetected hold?

"Well… Can't we just leave him somewhere for the day? Like at a motel or something?" Jack questioned. Nero shook his head no.

"Not with the wounds he has." He answered as he glanced over Aglæca's bandages. "He might have some kind of healing mechanism that speeds up the process of healing, like what me and Dante have, but his body is pretty worn and torn up."

"Dante and I." Jack corrected him. The tired young man looked back at Jack, genuinely confused. Now, with Nero facing him, Jack was able to see that, from the bags under his worn out eyes, Nero was very, very tired. He almost felt guilty for messing with Nero while he was so tired.

"What?"

"The proper way to say that sentence is 'like Dante and I have'." Nero's reaction to this was to roll his eyes and look over at Aglæca again, likely because he's too tired to even argue now. Having heard his name said several times now, Dante began to unwillingly become aware of his surroundings.

"Mornin'." Jack greeted Dante, having turned his attention over to him once he noticed Dante beginning to move. The elder hunter simply waved him a greeting back, since he was still focusing all of his energy on waking up and keeping himself from falling back to sleep.

"At the very least, he needs to be disinfected and stabilized. Possibly some stitches too to speed up healing. But he at least needs to be cleaned and patched up in a sterile area. I brought a small medical kit with us, but it won't be enough." Nero told them.

"Damn, kid. How long was I asleep? You look older than I do." Dante teased, having just fully opened his eyes and noticed Nero's tired state. "Well, as old as I'm _supposed_ to look." He said with a cheeky smile.

"Shut it, old man." He warned, shooting Dante a glare to back up his warning. Nero wasn't in a joking mood right now. Dante threw up his hands in the air, symbolically gesturing that he surrenders and, presumably, won't mess with him anymore.

"A sterile area?" Jack questioned, realizing Nero specifically mentioned "sterile". "You mean in the emergency surgery room at headquarters? Nero, there's no way we can get him up to that floor without being caught!" 

"It's possible. You and Dante can act as lookouts, making sure nobody's around up ahead, then I'll lead Aglæca, then you guys will go ahead of us and scout the area, and repeat until me and Aglæca are in the surgery room." Jack was about to voice his opinion about this, but Nero interrupted him. "And no, nobody ever really uses that room. I think it's been used maybe once or twice in the past few months, most of the other Order members prefer to go to the hospital in town, where there's a doctor, if they can." Jack sighed in defeat after a few seconds of silence.

"And he really can't wait until tonight?" Jack questioned again. To answer him, Nero simply pointed over at Aglæca. Jack observed that Aglæca is hunched over in his seat, arms draped around the wounds on his stomach, breathing shallowly with his pupil's dilated; some of the symptoms associated with shock from blood loss. "I guess not, huh?" He turned his attention back to Nero, who shook his head no.

"You sure he'll even be able to walk that far?" Dante asked. The younger man shrugged.

"He'll have to." He replied simply. "C'mon, let's not waste any more time, the sun's gonna be up soon." With that, Dante and Jack exited the car. With Nero following behind him, Jack walked to the back of the car and popped the trunk. Dante, meanwhile, went to the passenger side door and opened it. Gently, he shook Aglæca's shoulder. 

"Hey, we're near the dock. You gotta get up now." He spoke softly as if talking to a sleepy child, rather than to a demon, like what Aglæca is. Said demon slowly began to stir - he hadn't been asleep, but he wasn't really conscious of his surroundings either. He looked awfully old and weary. "We're getting you some clothes to hide under, so don't get out of the car just yet." Jack told Aglæca as he searched through their bags in the trunk. 

"Here, give these to Dante and I'll go return the keys." Jack offered Nero a pile of clothes after spending a minute rummaging through their bags.

"I was going to return them, I just wanted to see what clothes you'd pick out." Nero told him. Jack raised an eyebrow at him, which caused Nero to give him a confused look. After shaking his head, Jack gestured towards Nero's fully exposed demonic arm with his eyes. The young man looked down at his arm and gave a breathy "oh." He was so tired that he actually forgot he had a non-human arm. Reluctantly, he traded the car keys with Jack for the clothes. As Jack walked away, toward the rental business, Nero looked over the clothes he was given.

Not too long after, Nero came up to Dante holding out the clothes to him. "Looks like this is the best we've got. A hoodie, slacks, and some socks. Do you think this stuff will fit him?" He asked while handing the clothes over to him. Dante glanced over the articles of clothes as well. 

"It might be a long shot, but it could work." Dante said as he gestured to Aglæca, telling him that he needs to stand up now. After some help from Nero, Aglæca was able to stand up, albeit he was a bit wobbly. Dante and Nero worked together to gingerly put the hoodie on Aglæca without causing any unnecessary rubbing against his bandages, then Aglæca used Nero for support as Dante put the slacks on him, one leg at a time. Since he was already being supported by Nero, Dante decided to go ahead and try to put the socks on. There was lots of stretching and probably tearing to the socks from Aglæca's claws, but Dante eventually succeeded in getting the socks on him. Having gotten on his knees so that he could reach Aglæca's feet easier, Dante stood back up, sighing deeply in relief.

"Whew! That was a bit of a workout." He exclaimed, briefly putting his hands on his hips as he spoke. "Can we fit his tail into the pants too?" Dante noticed that Aglæca's tail is awkwardly hanging out from the slacks, essentially blowing his cover.

"Hmm.." Nero hummed before grabbing Aglæca's tail, being mindful of the spikes, and started trying to manipulate the tail into going into the slacks. At this time, Jack was exiting the rental building and was approaching the others. 

"How's he looking?" Jack questioned Dante, seeing that Nero is busy.

"Well, so long as nobody looks at his huge feet, or his oddly shaped hoodie covering his horns, or at his snout that's poking out…. Or at his left leg that looks twice the size of the right leg…" Dante said, observing Nero shoving Aglæca's tail into the left pant leg, "… I think he'll be okay." 

"The clothes fit pretty tightly on him now too." Nero said while looking over Aglæca's outfit. "But, it'll have to do, we don't have time to go get baggier clothes." He turned his attention to Jack, who had walked back to the car's trunk. "We all ready to go?"

"Yeah, I've got the receipt. We just gotta get our stuff out." Jack said as he grabbed out their weapons. He handed Nero his and Dante's sword before equipping his own sword onto his back. Nero passed Dante's sword along to Dante before he too equipped his sword onto his back, and which Dante did the same with his sword. "You have your guns, right?" Jack said after searching through the bags and being unable to find their guns, as he himself didn't have a gun. Becoming more tired from standing, Aglæca leaned on Dante to temporarily relief himself of his own weight. Dante glanced over at him to see what he was doing, but then returned his attention to Jack upon realizing why Aglæca was leaning on him.

"Always." Nero said as he patted the side of his hip, where Blue Rose is. 

"Same here." Dante agreed. Jack sighed quietly in relief, having been worried that he lost their guns.

"You know, one day, you're gonna get in trouble from the Order for having a gun." Jack told Nero as he gathered up their bags.

"They know I have a gun." He responded. Jack gathered up all the bags into his arms and hobbled over to the other three, hunched over from the weight.

"No… Credo knew… and he accepted it… but the others don't know." Jack had to take breaks in his sentence from the lack of air from carrying all the bags. Nero then took away several bags from him, seeing that he was obviously struggling. Jack breathed out a "whew" before straightening out his back.

"I'm not worried about it." Nero said before handing Dante half of the bags he was holding. This action caused Aglæca to stop leaning on Dante. "Sparda had guns, I don't see why we can't." He looked over at Dante's guns. "Even Dante has guns.." Nero grumbled.

"It's the Order of the _Sword_ , not the Order of the _Gun_." Jack pointed out as he grabbed his phone from his pocket. "And the Order itself doesn't worship Sparda or go by his rules, though most of us do, we just protect the city." He dialed a number on his phone and placed the phone to his ear before Nero could respond, though Nero looked too confused to respond immediately.

"His rules? …There's rules?" Nero questioned Jack, but upon seeing he is busy, his first instinct was to look over at Dante instead, even though he figured he wouldn't have the answer. Dante met his gaze.

"I dunno why you're looking at me, I have no idea." Nero simply rolled his eyes in response before turning his attention back to Jack. Jack gestured to them for them to follow him as he began to walk towards a modestly-sized ferry that could be seen in the distance. Nero shut the trunk of the car, then followed behind Jack. The eldest hunter followed immediately after Nero, but noticing that Aglæca was unable to keep his balance and walk as fast as them, he stopped and went back to the old demon. He put his arm around Aglæca to support him, and Aglæca likewise around Dante, and with Dante's help, they were able to catch up with Jack and Nero. 

"Hey, sorry to wake you this early. We need you to do something for us." Jack spoke into the phone. "You've been up for the past hour? Geez.." "Oh, in about 15 or 20 minutes, I need you to make sure nobody is in the surgical room, and that the path from the headquarter's entrance to the surgical room is clear." Panicked sounds could be heard on the other line. "No, no, we're okay! Well, most of us. Aglæca got hurt." A few seconds passed as Jack listened to the other person. "I'll explain when we get there, just make sure nobody's around so we won't get caught, okay?" "Alright, see you soon then. Love you." Jack hung up the phone afterwards. Nero raised an eyebrow at Jack, even though Jack can't seem him since Nero is following behind him.

"Was that your… lady friend?" Nero asked.

"Huh? Oh, no, that was Willow." Jack responded as he put the phone back into his pocket. Nero squinted his eyes at the back of Jack's head. "Anyways, he'll have the place clear. We just gotta get him to headquarters and we'll be safe."

"Good, good. You and Dante will scout up ahead once we get to Fortuna." Nero reminded them as they approached the ferry, brushing off Jack's odd behavior.

"What? Why do I have to do the scouting?" Jack whined, even though it had already been previously established that he and Dante were to act as lookouts. Nero rolled his eyes.

"Because you're clumsy. If you get caught scouting, people will just think you're being weird. Like normal." Jack huffed in response. "But if you were to get caught sneaking Aglæca, people will get suspicious of the oddly proportioned person you're sneaking around with."

"Yeah yeah, you've made you're point." Jack grumbled.

"Dante probably isn't that great at sneaking either, since it's pretty hard for somebody of his… size to go around undetected." Dante smirked, taking that as a compliment. "But, nobody's gonna question the son of Sparda if he gets caught."

"And you must be the master of sneaking, huh?" Jack argued.

"No, but I'm smaller and quicker."

"But I'm smaller and quicker." Jack said in a mocking voice.

"Shh, we're getting close to the ferry." Nero whispered. They walked onto the dock in silence. They reached the entrance to the ferry, then Jack suddenly stopped and held out his arm, so the others would not walk around him.

"I'll take care of this." He whispered before boarding the dock. As he watched Jack, Nero suddenly became aware of his very visible demonic arm. He turned to his side so that his arm, and the faint glow being emitted by his arm, would be hidden from the ferryman. Dante noticed his embarrassment, but said nothing, for now.

"Hey man, you headed to Fortuna soon?" Jack asked as he approached the ferryman. The tall, burly man turned to face Jack; he had previously been looking out at the ocean.

"Hey Jack!" His voice was gruff. "It's pretty early for you to be up. Coming back from a mission from the Order?" 

"Yeah, I would never be up at this God awful hour if it the Order hadn't made me." Jack joked, chuckling. "Anyways, we need a ride, are you going to town soon?"

"Well I don't usually set sail for another hour, but I can make an exception." The ferryman smiled. He peered over Jack's shoulder and noticed the odd looking person with them, his smile faded and he raised an eyebrow. "Is that.. Your friend?" Jack looked over his own shoulder to look back at the others.

"Oh! Yeah, he's a new recruit." Jack turned back to him, realizing he meant Aglæca. "His first mission. He got injured, which is why we're in a rush to get back to town." Jack explained nonchalantly. The ferryman's suspicion was cleared and his friendly smile returned.

"Ah! Gotta show the newbie's the ropes. I'll go ahead and get her moving then." 'Her' referring to the boat. The ferryman then made his way into the ferry's superstructure, where the ferry is manned. Jack turned to the others and gestured with his arm for them to get on the ferry. Figuring it's safe for them to approach now, they got onto the boat and walked towards Jack.

"He's getting us to Fortuna now." Jack informed them. Not even a few seconds after, the ferry jerked forward as it began moving, nearly sending the group down flat onto the deck.

"Well I guess that means we're going now." Nero grumbled irritatedly as he regained his balance. Somehow, Dante was able to keep both himself and Aglæca upright.

"It'll take about 30 minutes for us to reach the town. Just hang in there, alright?" Dante informed Aglæca after making sure he and himself were balanced again. Aglæca glanced up at him and nodded before tiredly dropping his head back down to continue resting. 

\---------------------------------------------

As the ferry rapidly approached Fortuna's dock, the gang prepared themselves for a sudden stop, like the sudden start they experienced. Much to their relief, the ferry slowed to a peaceful stop instead. 

"Alright, let's get going, we don't have much time." Nero said as he traded places with Dante in holding up Aglæca.

"Here, take my coat." Dante said as he took off his coat.

"What? No, you keep it."

"Too late, I already took it off." Dante said as he tossed his coat to him. The younger man caught the coat and raised an eyebrow at Dante before reluctantly putting on the coat, making sure Aglæca stayed upright as he did so. As he did so, Dante watched him, and he noticed a few changes. With his arm now covered, Nero unknowingly relaxed his shoulders and became visibly, though very subtly, more confident in his posture. Dante smirked a little, taking Nero's change in body language as a sign that he did the right thing by giving him his coat. He then looked out towards the town of Fortuna. "Well, no use in wasting time. Let's get going." He spoke to Willow before heading towards the ferry's exit ramp, since they were responsible for scouting ahead of Nero and Aglæca.

"Right, right." Jack followed behind Dante. "You make sure the area to the left is clear, I'll make sure the right area is clear." �  
"Gotcha."

"And we'll make sure the area at least 30 feet ahead of them is clear. If it's clear, we continue moving ahead. If not, hold up your hand towards Nero so he'll know to stop." Jack explained. "Got it?"

"Got it." Dante responded, and with that, they split up, with Dante going to the left and Jack going to the right. After waiting for them to get plenty ahead of him, Nero walked towards the end of the exit ramp. He made sure Aglæca was balanced after they crossed over the ramp before they continued walking, since coming back onto land after spending 30 minutes on a rocking ferry can mess with the equilibrium. They continued forward with caution, with Aglæca doing his best to act normal and human, given his circumstances. 

Working as a team, the group managed to make it through town without incident. It seemed as though the only ones wondering the streets this early in the morning were those who were still drunk from the night before, and they didn't really much care if Nero and his odd looking friend were around anyways. Hurrying up the steps towards headquarters, Nero was practically dragging Aglæca at this point. After losing as much blood as he did, as well as the loss of energy he's had to put into walking, he is having to fight just to stay conscious. 

"You're sure we have a clear route towards the surgical room?" Nero asked as they tried to run up the stairs.

"Willow said he'd have it clear by now!" Jack's voice was unintentionally elevated with anxiety. 

"I hope so. This is when most of the members start waking up." Nero said as he looked out towards the seemingly rapidly rising sun on the horizon.

"Shh!" Jack said to them all as they approached the building. They all made a sudden stop at the headquarter's entrance doors, with Dante and Jack in front of Nero and Aglæca. Hesitantly, Jack grabbed ahold of the handle to one of the double doors, with Dante following his lead and grabbing the other door's handle. After taking a deep breath, Jack, followed again by Dante, slowly opened the doors. Jack peaked inside, just to make extra certain nobody was around. After listening to silence for a few seconds, he was satisfied that everybody was still asleep, and so he and Dante made their approach through the doors. Nero and a half-limp Aglæca followed closely behind them for cover. They walked in silence, having to periodically stop after crossing a creaky board, just to make sure nobody heard them.

Miraculously, they made it through the first floor without incident. Though, as they approached the kitchen area located in the second floor, they could hear voices. The kitchen is connected to the hall they're walking in by a single archway, and unfortunately there isn't another hall connected to this one that would allow them to bypass the archway. With their backs practically up against the wall, they slowly crept towards the archway, stopping upon reaching it. Jack, who was ahead of them all now, tried his very best to peak into the kitchen without being noticeable. Looking into the kitchen, he saw Willow talking with a few other Order members, with Willow facing the archway so that the people he was talking with would have to have their backs facing the archway. Mentally thanking him, Jack lead the others quietly past the archway, and they went unnoticed by the Order members in the kitchen.

"Almost there…" Nero said under his breath, mostly to himself but also to Aglæca. With the staircase to the third floor, the floor with the surgical room, in sight, the gang began to speed up their pace. Jack's heart was pounding with anxiety, he had broken many rules before this, but being caught sneaking a demon this deeply into headquarters could easily get them kicked out of the Order and out of Fortuna; that is, assuming they weren't killed on sight. Meanwhile, Dante didn't seem bothered by the situation at all. With nervous sweat beginning to dot across his forehead, Jack attempted to fast walk across the few dozen remaining feet between them and the staircase. 

"Hey, look who's back!" Jack practically heard his heart fall to the floor. His head jerked towards the direction of the voice, and found that an Order member had opened a door ahead of them that connected to the hallway, and that he had seen him. "You guys have been gone for a pretty long time. Demons must've given you a run for your money, huh?" The Order member joked as he began to take a step out of the room he was in and into the hallway.

"Oh yes! Definitely!" Jack practically yelled, as if speaking louder will make Nero and Aglæca invisible. He quickly stepped in front of the man, effectively blocking his path into the hallway. "But he's definitely dead. Yup, definitely dead!" He yelled again, the sweat quickly building up on his brow. The Order member raised an eyebrow at him.

"You seem really nervous?" He questioned.

"He just got a bit of a scare, no worries." Dante quickly intervened. He stood beside Jack, so that the Order member's vision of the hallway would be completely blocked. Nero had both himself and Aglæca bend over, so they'd be better hidden, before they made the dash behind Dante and Jack. With that obstacle out of the way, Nero ran towards and up the stairs, essentially carrying Aglæca at this point, leaving Dante and Jack behind to distract the man through conversation. 

"Hey, don't you die on me right before we get there!" Nero demanded of Aglæca as they neared the surgical room.

"No…" Aglæca managed to groan, which Nero took as him saying he won't die. Busting through the swing double doors, Nero took the elder demon to one of the metal operating tables. He gently but quickly put him onto the operating table, being mindful of his wings, then ran over to the drawers for supplies. After rummaging through several drawers, he returned to Aglæca with plenty of bandages, gauze, a needle with surgical thread, a bottle of water, a pair of surgical gloves, and a bottle of wound care and disinfectant.

"Some of this stuff is pretty old, but it'll have to do." He said as he placed the items on the table, next to Aglæca. After putting on the gloves, he began the delicate and very tedious process of removing the strips of his coat that was used as bandages. Occasionally, he would douse the strips with water, which helps the makeshift bandages detach from the dried blood without tearing open the wound and causing it to bleed again. After what seemed like an eternity but was in reality likely no more than a minute, the strips were completely removed. 

"This is pretty bad." Nero said as he accessed the damage. "Looks like he tore open your abdominal cavity. I'm not sure how your intestines didn't end up spilling out.." He gingerly touched around the wound, but Aglæca didn't seem to notice. His body is probably too focused on staying alive to take notice of pain right now. "I guess we didn't notice since the blood was drying over the gashes?" Nero questioned himself, unsure of how they didn't notice that Aglæca's stomach had been damaged more than they thought.

"Going to try and suture up a torn abdominal cavity?" A voice spoke. Nero instantly froze. With his eyes widened, he looked over towards the swinging doors, where the voice was coming from. At some point, a man had come into the surgical room without Nero noticing, probably because he was too focused on Aglæca. The man had a tired, war-bearing face that had become aged much too soon. His posture was confident, and his hands were interlocked behind his back. He was the captain of the Order of the Sword. "Sounds like a lot of work to save a demon that is meant to be slain." Nero was left speechless, his mind working hard to think up a believable excuse. 

A few seconds later, Jack entered through one of the swinging double doors. Upon seeing the captain in front of him, his eyes got as wide as an apple and he immediately began backing out of the room. Dante, who had been following behind him, stood in his place at the doorway of the swinging door, despite Jack backing up into him, preventing Jack from leaving. Nero looked over at Jack and urgently gestured, with his eyes, for them to leave quickly, before he looked over at the captain again. "Well, you see…. Umm…." He stammered, unable to think quickly enough. He wasn't really concerned for himself, this wasn't his first time being in trouble and it won't be the last time either, but this was the first time he was caught breaking the rules with others helping him. The sense of guilt from knowing he pushed them to help, and now not knowing what would happen to them, was a new experience for him, and was clogging his mind too much for him to think clearly. 

"Take your time, I would love to hear one of your world-famous excuses." The captain said, his words snapping Nero's mind out of the fog it was in. "But I will say, I know Jack and Dante helped in this." He turned to look at the two men behind him. Jack looked terrified and gave him a nervous smile, meanwhile Dante seemed unphased. After all, he's been in actual life threatening situations, this was nothing to him. The captain looked back over to Nero. "Same as Willow. I woke up early this morning, and I saw how Willow suspiciously cleared out the Order members. I got curious as to why only a path leading to this room was cleared, so I waited. Then, I observed you, Jack, Dante, and that demon enter headquarters and make your way here." Nero looked confused by this.

"How did we not see you?" He questioned. The captain laughed. 

"Nero, we have cameras throughout the building. Nobody watches them 24/7, but after I watched Willow, I went to the monitor room and watched you three move through the building." He explained. As they spoke, Nero noticed Aglæca beginning to shake, most likely because the cold, metal table was sucking away his body heat. "Normally, the captain is supposed to banish those who affiliate with demons from Fortuna, especially after the Savior incident. But, seeing as Dante is involved, it'd be a nightmare trying to explain to the board why I banished the son of Sparda from a town that worships his father without at least giving you guys a chance to explain yourselves." He turned to his side, so that he could face all three of them. Jack hesitantly walked more into the room, allowing Dante to enter the room as well. 

"Well, you see, sir.." Jack began.

"Look, I can explain later, but right now he needs to be taken care of. He's had these wounds for over a day now, if we take any longer suturing him up, he won't make it." Nero said, now irritated. "You're just going to have to trust me." He said as he began cleaning off the dried blood and dirt from his wounds, using the disinfectant to do so. The captain looked over at Nero, his brows furrowed. 

"Trust you? Do you have any idea how much I'm risking by just keeping you in the Order, despite your ailment? I could lose my job if word about this gets out." He said calmly, yet with a tone with anger. 

"You know, I don't get it. Dante's only part human too! Hell, Sparda himself was a demon! Why in the hell am I prosecuted and they get worshipped?" Nero yelled not-so-calmly, having stopped taking care of Aglæca to give the captain an angry look.

"C'mon Nero, now's not the time for a temper tantrum.." Jack whispered to himself. 

"Because THEY don't look the part!" The captain told him, walking over to Nero and holding up his demonic arm to show him what he meant. Nero immediately jerked his arm out of his grip. He leaned on the metal table, closed his eyes, and focused on relaxing himself for the next few seconds.

"Then, if you don't trust my judgement because of a stupid imperfection, trust Dante's judgement." He said in a calmer, yet still quite angry voice. He reopened his eyes and looked over at the captain. "He's been with us from the start. If he doesn't think this demon should be killed, shouldn't you trust the almighty son of Sparda?" Nero said passive aggressively, before he continued disinfecting Aglæca's wounds. The captain looked over to Dante.

"Is this true? Is there a valid reason why this beast should not be killed?" Dante nodded in response to the question.

"There are good demons, just like there are bad humans." He said after nodding. The captain nodded to this, then looked away as he mulled over his options.

"Stand aside, I've sutured up abdominal cavities before, I'll be quicker than you." The captain said as he grabbed a couple surgical gloves from a nearby counter. After finishing up cleaning as much as he could from the wounds, Nero stepped away from Aglæca, and instead stood beside Dante and watched the captain work. Silence fell upon the room for a short while.

"Those were some pretty wise words from a smart ass." Nero spoke quietly to Dante, earning him a smirk from said man. "What happened, your old age finally catching up with you?" He teased.

"Nah, I'm just good at persuasion." Dante said, causing Nero to smirk. "Hey, about what he said.." Dante began, whispering so that he would not be heard, his expression now more serious.

"It's fine." Nero interrupted, knowing Dante was about to try and reassure him that his arm doesn't make him any less human. "I suppose it's time I accepted it anyways." His smirk faded into a blank, solemn stare at the space in front of him. Dante observed him, but after being unable to think of anything to say to him, he decided to instead look over at the captain and Aglæca. 

"I need a blanket. He's unable to properly regulate his body temperature due to blood loss and my efforts will be worthless if he gets too cold." The captain said as he carefully and slowly sutured up Aglæca's torn abdominal cavity. Jack immediately went to one of the lower drawers in the medical supply counter, grabbing out several clean towels that are normally used to clean up messes.

"Are these good?" Jack asked, his voice slightly shaking from still being anxious and nervous about the whole situation. 

"Yes, those are fine. Just put them over the parts of its body that I don't need to work on." He said after briefly glancing up to look at the towels. Jack did as he was told and placed the towels over as much of Aglæca's body as he could. "I need all but one of you to stay here until I'm done, partly because I might need assistance but mostly because we have some things to discuss after this." His voice was very serious. "But one of you needs to go get Willow. I don't want any of you to go running off, so once Willow is here, nobody leaves until I say you can. Understood?" The captain paused in his work to look up at them, and only returned to working on Aglæca after receiving a nod from Jack, Nero, and Dante. Jack volunteered to go get Willow, and quickly left the room to do so.

With this, Dante and Nero got comfortable and settled into the room, figuring the delicate process of suturing a badly torn abdominal cavity, and possibly some other wounds too, would take a while to complete.


	14. A New Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aglæca endures surgery to fix up his wounds and now the Order boys are faced with the issue of what do to with him.

Six hours. Six hours is how long it took to get Aglæca fixed up and stable again - well, as stable as possible, he had lost quite a bit of blood and it will be a while before he's well again, but, he was not in an immediate danger of death anymore. Jack, Nero, and Willow were all forced to stay within the surgical room the entire time. Dante stayed too, but he chose to do so. Whether it be because of his lineage or because he was not a Holy Knight like the others, the captain never specifically told him to stay and he didn't object during the numerous times that Dante left the room. Nevertheless, Dante figured he'd probably get his ass chewed out by Nero if he left them to fend for themselves against the captain, and so he endured the six boring hours with the others. Well, that, and the kid still had his coat. The aforementioned hunter had succumbed to sleep for most of the time, his lack of sleep from driving back to Fortuna having finally caught up with him. Dante didn't have the heart to wake up the slumbering half-demon just to get his coat back, not to mention it felt odd, yet nice, to see the kid sleeping with his coat on. The others filled the time by periodically napping, talking, or playing card games, since Jack apparently keeps a deck of cards with him at all times "just in case" something were to happen, as he told them. Nobody knew what kind of situation would require playing cards, besides the situation they were in now, but they were just grateful they had something to pass the time. 

"Go fish." Said Willow.

"Damn it…" Jack groaned as he added a new card to his hand. 

"Dante, you got a three?" Willow asked. The elder hunter briefly looked over his hand before handing over a card to Willow. The three men sat in a circle around a deck of cards that was on the floor, meanwhile Nero was sprawled out on the floor next to them. After he had fallen asleep, and had subsequently slowly positioned himself onto the floor, Jack placed an unused towel over Nero and put another bunched up towel underneath his head to make his sleep more comfortable. That, and if he started to drool, he figured Nero waking up in a pool of saliva on a cold floor would put him in a sour mood, which, nobody wanted that.

"It's done." The captain announced, his voice sounding exhausted. The three men sighed in relief almost simultaneously as they all began to stand up and stretch out their limbs that ached from not being used in so long. 

"Nero, wake up! He's done." Willow said as he gently poked the kid's side with his boot. Nero groaned and reluctantly opened his eyes ever so slowly. Eventually, he was standing up with the others, tiredly rubbing an eye as he watched the captain. The captain slowly stood from his chair; he had grabbed himself a chair to sit on while working on Aglæca to make things easier on his already tired body. He placed his hands on his back and began the process of cracking and stretching out his now sore back. 

"Now, I'm not surprised Nero would try to pull off something like this-" Nero glared at the captain contemptuously. "-but you two, Jack and Willow?" Willow hung his head down in shame, meanwhile Jack just crossed his arms defensively. "Well, actually, I shouldn't be all that surprised about Jack, you've always been a rebellious one. But Willow? You've never once stepped out of line during your entire career as a Holy Knight." This caused Willow to look even more ashamed. The captain looked over at Dante. "Now, the only reason I haven't fired all of you by now is because of Dante. The fact that's he's involved tells me that this wasn't a dare, or some kind of prank, or just simply an act of stupidity." He looked back down at Aglæca. Aglæca was conscious and had his eyes partially open, but was too weak to say or do anything. "That being said, why is this particular demon special enough that you three risked your career and livelihood to save him?" Willow spoke up before anybody else had the chance.

"Sir, his name is Aglæca. He once aided Sparda, back when Sparda was rebelling against the demon realm." The captain looked unimpressed.

"Is that so? And he just suddenly appeared, after all these years, for no particular reason?" He voiced his doubts. 

"No sir. Do you remember that sinkhole that opened up in town a while back?" After receiving a nod, Willow continued. "Well, I reported that the sinkhole led to nothing more than an old ritualistic site, but I lied." He paused to take a deep breath. "We found Aglæca in there. He had been entombed in cement by his brothers, who had betrayed Sparda, and had been in there since not too long after Sparda successfully sealed off the demon world."

"And you just believed his little story?" The captain questioned.

"No, of course not, he has this special ability, where he can-" Aglæca interrupted Willow. "Captain, may I know your full name?" His voice was hoarse and weak, but still just barely loud enough to be heard and understood. The captain glared down at him. 

"Why in Sparda's name would I tell you? I know names are very important in your world, you use the names of your enemies to defeat them."*

"I must know your name to show you what I have seen." Aglæca explained. The captain looked over at the three men for confirmation, still suspicious of Aglæca. After receiving a nod from Jack and Willow, thus telling him to trust Aglæca, the captain looked back down at the old demon. 

"My name is Joseph Abbadelli." He told him after a minute of hesitation. With that, Aglæca nodded, and closed his eyes. Soon after, the captain closed his eyes as well, but remained perfectly still. They both stayed like this for approximately 15 minutes.

"Wow, is that what we look like when we're in one of Aglæca's memories?" Nero questioned with surprise after having watched them for several minutes. 

"Kinda creepy." Dante commented. Once this period of silence while the captain was reliving the demon's memories passed, they reopened their eyes. Aglæca looked over at the captain, and the captain looked at Aglæca with amazement. They were both silent for several seconds as the captain contemplated what to say.

"lt's possible what you just showed me was just a made up fantasy made to get my trust, but if that is so, it was a very detailed and accurate one." He finally said. "I've experienced many demonic illusions before, but they are always inconsistent and not very factual." He said, resuming his previous composure. "So, either you are quite the manipulator, or I owe you an apology." Aglæca had no response to this other than to simply watch the man beside him, likely because he had used up the little bit of energy that he had gained over the past six hours on showing the captain his memory. Understanding the demon is too tired to continue speaking, the captain turned to Willow. "Before you left on this mission that you just came back from, you told me it involved hunting down potentially threatening demons. I assume this demo-I mean, Aglæca, came with you. Why did he tag along and what exactly was the purpose of this mission?"

"Sir, I can explain everything," Willow paused to gesture his head towards Aglæca. "but we need to let Aglæca rest. We've been keeping him in one of the holding cells in the basement. But, clearly, we're not going to be able to sneak him down there in the middle of the day. We should leave him here, lock up the room to prevent anybody from coming in, and let him focus on resting until the others return to their rooms for the night." The captain briefly looked back down at Aglæca, observing that the elder demon was struggling just to keep his eyes open.

"Very well then. Jack, Willow." He called, gaining the two men's attention. "You two will come with me to my office. You will tell me what's been going on." The captain looked over to Nero, who had, at some point, closed his eyes, hung his head down, and was essentially half asleep while standing. "Nero!" He said sternly, causing Nero's eyes to shoot open and his head snap back up.   
"Yeah?" He said groggily.

"Clearly you need some rest. Go and get yourself some food and some sleep, but you will report to me first thing tomorrow. Same with you two, Jack and Willow. We will decide what to do with Aglæca together." 

"And Dante?" Jack questioned.

"I'm sure he has better things to do than chit chat. The fact that he's been here babysitting you three for the past six hours rather than leaving tells me that he cares about both your and the demon's wellbeing. That alone tells me all I need to know from him." The captain said. "Come, Jack and Willow, let's go have a talk." He said as he used his hand to gesture that they should follow him, just before he walked out of the room. Reluctantly, the two followed after him, but not before exchanging solemn glances between themselves and with Nero. After glancing back at Aglæca once last time, Nero and Dante left the surgical room as well. As they started making their trek towards the headquarter's entrance, Nero took off Dante's coat and handed it back to him.

"Thanks." He mumbled. 

"No problem, kid." Dante said with a smirk as he finally put his coat back on. Expecting Nero to have some sort of aggressive comeback for being called a kid, he was surprised when Nero handed him a $20 bill instead. Curiously, he took the money and examined over it.

"What's this for?"   
"It's so you can get your coat dry cleaned. It smells like old man and gunpowder." He teased with a satisfied smirk.

"Oh? Is that why you wore it for so long, you want to smell like an old man and gunpowder?" Dante received a punch to the arm for this, which he just chuckled off. There was a brief pause in their conversation.

"You should probably head back home." Nero told him.

"Aw, c'mon, I was just teasing." 

"No, not like that, I mean you've been away from your shop for a while now. Lady's probably gonna put a few bullets in you if you don't start heading back home." Nero explained.

"She's gonna do that either way, but I suppose you're right." Dante said with a sigh at the end as they exited headquarters together. Now that they were out in public, Dante noticed Nero kept his devil bringer close to his side, positioning his arm so that it was slightly behind himself, somewhat hiding it. 

"Am I ever going to actually meet Lady, or am I just going to hear stories about the various ways she mutilates your body if you don't do what she wants?" Nero questioned. 

"She's always working to get more money, so she probably won't ever take time off to come down here. Not that she doesn't want to meet you, she's just always got jobs to do." Dante quickly added in that last bit after seeing Nero's disappointed expression. They walked into town in silence, before stopping and turning towards each other near the middle of town. It was at this point that the path to Nero's house and the path to the ferry diverged. 

"You think you guys will be alright?" Dante asked after a few seconds of silence, seeing that Nero felt too awkward to say anything first.

"Yeah, we'll be alright. I have no idea what's going to happen to Aglæca though, I know the captain won't want him to stay at headquarters, but he also wouldn't want to release him, but he won't want to kill him either." Nero responded before sighing deeply. "I have a feeling these next few weeks are gonna be hell." He groaned.

"Nah, I'm sure it'll be alright." 

"Easy for you to say, you won't have to deal with any of it!" He complained. Dante just smirked at him in response. "Speaking of which, when will you be back?"

"Aw, miss me already?" Dante teased. 

"No!" Nero said immediately. "I just have to know so I can plan on when I have to put up with your lazy ass." He defended. Dante ruffled up the kid's hair playfully, much to Nero's dismay, as he ducked down and tried swatting away Dante's hand. "Stop that!" He demanded, and Dante, for once, obliged. 

"It's alright, you won't have to miss me for too long." Nero rolled his eyes in response. "But I don't know when I might be back. I haven't spent this long away from the shop in a while, so I don't know how much hell Lady is gonna put me through to make up for her watching over the shop for me." Sympathetically, Nero briefly patted Dante's shoulder.

"Good luck."

"Thanks, I'm gonna need it.." Dante mumbled the last part, already feeling exhausted just thinking about all the work he'll have to do to make it up to that greedy woman. "See ya then, kid." He said as he patted Nero's shoulder, before he headed towards the ferry. 

"Hey, thanks for coming with us." Nero shouted as Dante walked farther away. Rather than verbally respond, the man in red simply waved off his thanks as he walked. Nero watched the man leave for a few seconds before he headed towards his house, fully intending on passing out until the next morning.

\---------------------------------

August 8th.  
As soon as Dante had gotten home from Fortuna, before he could even get comfortable, Dante was berated, lectured, threatened, and yelled at by Lady. This treatment continued for several days, at every chance she got. After this phase of anger passed, about a week later, Dante would merely receive scornful looks every time he entered a room that Lady was in. Trish wasn't too happy about having to pick up his slack at the shop while he was gone either, but figured Lady would do enough damage to Dante for the both of them. Though he was given a large amount of jobs he had to complete every day, in fact he was doing more jobs in a week than he normally would in an entire month _and_ got a much smaller percentage of the money he earned from these jobs than normal, thanks to Lady, he did still have some free time. After two and a half weeks of this nonstop working, he must've finally suffered enough, as Lady stopped giving him extra jobs and his schedule returned to normal. It was once things returned to normal that Dante decided to make an unannounced visit to Fortuna, for no particular reason.

At first, Dante politely knocked on the doors to headquarters, but after receiving no response, he decided to let himself in. He expected nobody would be at the door though, since it's currently very early in the morning; the sun came up not too long ago, in fact. He looked around for any signs of life in the immediate area, but after finding that apparently nobody's awake yet, he headed into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. Upon entering, he heard the clanking of pots, and quick examination of the room for the source of the noise revealed that there is a woman bent over, next to the counter, grabbing out some pots from the cabinet below. Smirking widely, he approached the woman from behind, checking her out with his greedy eyes as he did. She was wearing the traditional all-white coat that most of the Holy Knights wear, but was also wearing some blue jean short shorts. Her coat flap was folded over her back, exposing her legs. Thanks to this, Dante was able to observe that she had a nice, smooth set of legs on her that were probably a bit more muscular than he was used to, but that's not to say he didn't like what he saw. Moving upwards, he couldn't help but check out her nice ass. After all, it was all right there for the whole world to see, how could he resist? It was a decent size, not too big, but also not small. Probably just big enough to nicely fit in a hand, which is good enough for this pervert. Said pervert then pondered to himself if the woman's face is as pretty as her body is.

"Hey baby, I haven't seen you around here before." Dante flirted, and he noticed his voice caused the woman to freeze. "What's a beautiful woman like yourself doing in here, all by herself?" The woman slowly stood up straight, and, to Dante's horror, he recognized the person in front of him as their full frame was now in view. The woman wasn't actually a woman. It was Nero! Slowly, Nero turned to face Dante, his face filled with suppressed rage that was showing itself in the form of a forced smile of impending doom. In one hand he tightly held a pot, in the other, a pan. The now horrified red clothed hunter immediately backed away from the angry cooking ware-welding person as fast as he could.

"This beautiful woman is making breakfast. Would the perverted old man like eggs or bacon?" Nero said in an oddly calm, higher-than-normal pitched voice. A few moments of tense silence passed before Dante felt it might be safe to respond.

"I… um… eggs?" He said in a questioning tone.

"Oh good. I hope you don't mind that they'll be scrambled!" The anger in Nero's voice quickly rose and his smile faded as he spoke, before he lunged at Dante with his pot and pan in hand. Dante put all his energy into attempting to run away, but was no match for the younger, more nimble man when they were already in close proximity beforehand. A loud, echoing crash coming from a pot being smashed upside Dante's head could be heard, followed closely by the sound of what can be assumed as his skull being slightly split open. The sheer force caused Dante to lose his footing and go crashing down onto the floor onto his side, where he curled his legs into a semi-fetal position and held up his hands to cover the soon-to-be blows to the head. He had been on the ground before with Nero beating him up; not only did it not feel good, but he had issues suppressing his devil trigger. He didn't want to hurt the kid, so he resolved to taking the beating, but also defending himself this time.

And so began a rage-filled beating that lasted about three straight minutes. About half of the blows Nero aimed at his head were successful, the others being blocked by Dante's hands, before he turned to attacking the rest of the poor man's body for the remainder of the beating. By the time all was said and done, Nero was on his knees on top of Dante's side, but wasn't quite touching him. He dropped his pot and pan and grabbed Dante by his collar. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Do you have no morals, no dignity?!" 

"What's wrong with _me_? What's wrong with _you_! Why are you in shorts?!" Dante yelled back, though not in anger, opening his eyes and peering up at this still angry kid above him. "…..And why did you shave your legs?!" Before Nero could respond, a loud, resounding laughter could be heard from the kitchen's entrance. Neither man was sure if the person laughing had been there the entire time of not. Nero looked up toward the entrance with a furious look, spying a keeled over Jack that looked to be laughing so hard that he was in pain. 

"How long have you been standing there?!" Nero demanded to know.

"Long enough to know that Dante was staring at your ass like it was the best looking candy he's ever laid eyes on!" Jack said through his laughter, tears welling up in his eyes. With a renewed fury, Nero glared down at Dante, who helplessly stared back up at him, his eyes half closed so that he can quickly close them again if Nero decides that he's not through hitting him. 

"I lost a bet yesterday." He said through gritted teeth. "I had to get my legs waxed and have wear shorts for an entire day." Nero explained in a calm voice with a still angry undertone. He let go of Dante before he picked up his pot and pan again, then he stood up and walked over to the kitchen's oven. Nero resumed gathering materials to make breakfast, as though nothing out of the norm had just happened. Surprised at the sudden stop of his onslaught, Dante stayed down for a few more seconds before he slowly got back on his feet. He rubbed his head to make sure any wounds had healed properly. Jack, his laughter dying down to a chuckle, wiped the tears away from his face as he sat down at the kitchen table.

"Hey, look on the bright side, the fact that he didn't recognize your ass meant that he's never looked at it before." Jack told him. And he was half right - Dante hadn't seen his backside before, not that he hadn't tried though, either Nero's trench coat usually covered it too well or Dante was in a position to where it'd be obvious he was checking out his butt. He wasn't quite sure why he made these attempts to look at another man's butt, but he blamed these urges on having been in a dry spell for so long that spying any kind of good looking tail would be good enough for him. Nero rolled his eyes at Jack's comment as he passive aggressively cracked open some eggs. "Besides, can you blame him? You've got a pretty big butt for a guy. Most guys with muscle don't have an ass." He said, earning himself a brief glare from Nero. "Like me. I'm as flat as a pancake."

"As much as I love talking about my personal parts," Nero said sarcastically "what do you and the jackass want to eat?" 

"Oh I want bacon and toast." Jack said, returning to normal. 

"And the jackass?" Nero questioned as he cooked.

"He would be fine with just some egg." Dante said, trying to be somewhat polite with his words. There were several minutes of silence afterwards, with Jack preoccupying himself by reading a newspaper that had been left on the table and Nero being busy with cooking. Dante felt awkward with the prolonged silence, but didn't dare possibly poke the beast that is Nero by talking. He wanted to ask why he was wearing one of the normal, white Holy Knight coats rather than his customized blue one, but realized that he probably hasn't been able to get himself a new one yet after having to rip up his old one. After those minutes passed, Nero got out three plates and filled them with food. He went to the table holding all three plates in his hands and arms and passed them out accordingly.

"So what are you doing here?" Nero questioned as he sat down, looking over at Dante with there still being a tinge of anger in his eyes. Meanwhile, Jack dropped his newspaper and eagerly began devouring his food.

"No reason." Dante responded nonchalantly as he began to eat.

"No reason? It's 8am. You had to of gotten up at at least 6 to make it here at this time." The elder simply shrugged in response. "It takes the power of the Gods to get you up this early." He questioned with an eyebrow raised. 

"Maybe I just missed you?" Dante said with a smirk, figuring that might get him to stop asking questions. The younger scoffed at this.

"Yeah, sure. You must've pissed off one of the girls and can't be home right now." Nero concluded, and, satisfied with his conclusion, started picking at his eggs with his fork.

"So, uh, what kind of a bet did you make?" Dante changed the subject, chuckling a little at Nero's predicament. There was a pause before he got a response, likely because Nero was giving him a look, but he decided calmly looking down at his food as he ate rather than meeting Nero's gaze was better for his health. 

"I had to complete a mission in under ten minutes." He grumbled. "If I won, Jack was going to take over my missions for the next week. If I lost, well… Yeah." Nero aggressively stabbed his eggs in irritation before eating it. 

"And I guess you didn't make the ten minutes?" Dante asked, peering up at him with a smirk.

"No. Took me eleven minutes… Stupid demon wouldn't quit jumping around…"

"…Did it hurt?" His curiosity got the better of him, he just had to ask. Waxing your legs sounds so painful, after all.

"Are you kidding? He was crying the entire time!" Jack intervened, chuckling to himself before he continued eating.

"Yes, a little." Nero spoke while glaring at Jack. "You try having the roots of all of your leg hairs forcibly pulled out from your skin and not complain any."

"Oh I'd be crying like a baby and begging for my mommy." Jack admitted.

"Well anyways," Nero began, not wanting to continue talking about this subject "whatever the reason you’re here, you know the basics. Most of the daylight hours we spend doing missions, restoring the city, or any kind of odd job that's available, so each or all of us may leave at any time for any amount of time, yada yada yada.." He reiterated what seems like a previous conversation they've had, since this isn't Dante's first unannounced visit. "So you're free to do what you want around here and in the city when we're gone, try not to destroy anything again, umm…" Nero tried to think of if he's missing anything. "Oh, the fridge just got filled the other day," He pointed over to the direction of the fridge briefly. "and no, we still don't have alcohol here but there's bars all around town. You know where the tv remote is and such. We also got some new magazines the other day, they're probably on a table somewhere," Dante opened his mouth to speak. "and no, there's no playboy magazines." With that, Dante closed his mouth. "But if you get desperate, I'm sure one of the guys around here has one." Nero said with an eye roll to show his disgust. 

"Or you can just take a picture of Nero's womanly legs and butt and work with that." Jack suggested, grinning from ear to ear. 

"Don't you have to go help rebuild that woman's house on the edge of town right about now?" Nero sneered. Jack, looking confused, glanced at the watch on his arm before saying 'oh shit' under his breath, grabbing a final large bite of food, and rushing out of the room. "Yeah, that's what I thought." He muttered before looking over at Dante, who was still chuckling at Jack's previous remark. "What're you laughing at?" Nero asked contemptuously. The elder of the two stopped laughing abruptly, covering his last few chuckles with coughing until he became quiet, though his smirk remained.

"So, obviously you didn't get kicked out." Dante changed the subject yet again. "What ended up happening?" He questioned as he finished off the last couple bites of his food.

"Well, actually, nothing's official yet, but we spent forever talking to the captain, then with Aglæca, then again with the captain, and so on… but in the end, Aglæca has decided he'll join the Order." Given by his expression, it's obvious this surprised Dante. 

"Really?"

"Yeah, but like I said it's not official yet. Aglæca says he has no issue with joining, says it'll give him a new purpose or something." Nero explained. "The captain isn't sure if we're going to tell the public, or if the other Order members will be told, or really any of the details. Right now he's just trying to persuade the board members to approve his plan."

"So they know he's here then?"

"The board members? No, the plan that the captain is trying to get approved basically just says that any demons, or creatures of any kind, that are seeking refuge and have demonstrated having a good nature should be allowed to work for the Order in exchange for a safe place to stay. Or something like that, I don't remember the exact wording… But it doesn't mention him." Dante responded with an approving "hmm".

"You really think they'll go for that?"

"Eventually… Probably." Nero looked down at his food as he ate his last bite before looking back up at Dante. "I don't know. Everybody is still shaken up from the whole Savior Incident, but, maybe if he argues that Sparda was a demon too and such often enough, maybe they'll have a change of heart." 

"And what about Aglæca? He alright?"

"He'll get there. His wounds healed up well but he lost a lot of the muscle and fat he gained, so even if the captain's plan is approved, it'll be a few months before he can be considered healthy enough to fight anyways."

"You sure he's not too old to fight?" Dante questioned.

"Of course not." Speaking as he stood up, Nero grabbed up the three dirty plates and took them to the sink. "Just look at you, you're old as hell and you're still fighting." He chuckled to himself as he placed the plates in the sink.

"I'd rather be old than a kid." Dante smirked as he too stood up from his chair. 

"Yeah yeah, I get it, I'm young." He brushed off Dante's teasing. "I actually have some errands I need to do for the Order." Nero buttoned up his trench coat as he spoke. "Simple stuff, so I should be back within the hour, hopefully with my dignity still intact." He muttered the last part to himself. After completely buttoning up his coat, his legs were covered up to a bit below his knees. He still looked awkward, but not nearly as much as before. "This should keep the other perverts from cat calling me now." 

"I don't know, those are some sexy looking ankles." Dante teased with a smirk, acting as though he's checking out Nero's ankles. 

"I'll take my chances." He said through gritted teeth, glaring at the man in front of him. "Anyways, just please behave yourself while we're gone."

"You know me, just give me a magazine and some food and I'll be good." Dante then headed towards the headquarter's living room. Figuring Dante at least won't get into too much trouble in the next hour, Nero watched him leave before he himself left.

\------------------------

Most of day passed without much excitement. Nero, Jack, and Willow came and went from headquarters, leaving to do various jobs and missions then coming back when all was said and done. All in all, for them, the day was no different than any other day. The younger white haired hunter had been out since 2pm, and still hasn't returned home, which he had warned the others may happen since the job involved tedious, time consuming work. Dante, meanwhile, had made himself at home on the headquarter's living room couch. He cycled through eating, reading a magazine, watching some tv, getting up to relieve himself, and napping throughout the day. It was quite relaxing to him to finally have a day where he can be lazy, even though Nero constantly chastised him about it inbetween jobs. The time now is approximately 9:30pm. 

Dripping wet, Nero rushed through the headquarter's front doors. It had started pouring rain all of a sudden about ten minutes ago, and with the day's light being gone as well, Nero decided to go ahead and call it quits on his job until tomorrow morning. Luckily, since his coat is still completely buttoned up, the only part of him that really got wet was his hair and his coat. Shaking his head side to side to fling off as much water as possible, he began walking towards the living room. Familiar voices could be heard within the room, leading Nero to believe his friends were there.

"Hey everyone." Nero greeted in an exasperated tone as he entered, wringing out the longest parts of his hair. He received hello's and waves from Dante, Jack, and Willow, respectively. "So, Dante…. Trish called me while I was out." Nero smirked widely.

"Did she now?" His tone was calm, but inside he was sweating.

"Yeah. Told me that today is your birthday." Dante hung his head in defeat with this, letting out a long sigh. "What gives? You don't like getting older?" Nero said in a teasing tone, sitting down beside the old man.

"Oh man it's your birthday?!" Jack exclaimed in excitement.

"Yeah… Each year I hide from Trish and Lady on my birthday. But they always manage to find me. Trish smothers me with some type of motherly-like love, meanwhile Lady makes it her job to remind me that I need to start taking care of myself and so on…" Dante peered back up at the others. "It's easier to just hide from them."

"Let's go to a strip club!" Jack suggested, practically jumping up and down with excitement.

"What? No!" Nero objected.

"Why not? That sounds fun. Whaddaya say Dante, you want to go watch some strippers for your birthday?" Willow asked. "It'd be a shame to not celebrate your birthday at all." The man in question shrugged.

"Sure, I don't see why not." He smirked. It actually didn't sound like a bad idea. For various reasons, Dante hadn't been to a strip club in quite a while. Not to mention it'll be fun watching how Nero responds to being in the kind of environment that a strip club has.

"There's no way!" Nero crossed his arms in attempt to add to the finality of his decision.

"Aw, why not?" Willow asked.

"Maybe because both you and me have girlfriends?" Nero reminded him. Willow scoffed at this.

"My lady won't care, so long as I look and don't touch. Kyrie won't care either, she's not as uptight as you are."

"I won't go." Nero stated. Rolling his eyes, Willow spoke again.

"You can go put on some pants so that nobody mistakes you for one of the strippers," Nero glared at him with disdain for that "we can sit in a booth in the back so you don't have to look if you don't want to, and you can call Kyrie while we're walking there to make sure she's alright with it. Okay?" The young man sat in silence, trying to think of another excuse.

"There aren't any strip clubs around here."

"Yeah there is, one opened up on the edge of town a couple months ago." Jack responded. After more silence, Jack spoke again. "C'mon Nero, it'll be fun." He begged. Everybody turned and watched Nero for the next few seconds to see what he'd say. 

"Fine." He let out a heavy sigh. "But we can't stay out too late." Nero gave in. Jack immediately started celebrating by jumping up and down and shouting with excitement, causing Nero raise an eyebrow and give him a questioning look. 

"I know, you got to be back before your bedtime." Willow teased. Nero just simply huffed and rolled his eyes for what was probably the hundredth time today. 

The gang of four headed out not too long after that, due to Jack pushing them to hurry up. Nero changed out his shorts for a pair of pants, much to his pride and ego's relief. He did call Kyrie as they made their way, and was surprised to find that Willow was right; she had no problem with him going to a strip club. Probably because she correctly assumes he'd be too shy and embarrassed to actually get himself into trouble. The rain from earlier had subsided a bit, allowing them to walk to the club without getting completely drenched.

"C'mon, it'll do ya some good to relax and loosen up for once." Dante tried to reassure the obviously slightly panicked younger man.

"This isn't how you loosen up!" Nero retorted. "This is what you do when you want to feel dirty and violated…" He muttered.

"Then maybe it's time Mr. Squeaky Clean gets a bit dirty." The man in red said, smirking at the man beside him.

"Whatever.." Nero grumbled. As they approached the very edge of town, a large neon sign labeled 'The Devil's Lair' began to show itself from behind a few trees. The building itself looked no different than the other buildings located around town; it looked quite old and worn, yet there were some obviously modern additions to it, such as the neon sign. There were a couple cracks in the walls, along with some building material stacked against said walls. It was likely the building was damaged during The Incident and the original owners decided to resell rather than rebuild. Nero could swear he could smell the filth and sweat already, but this was certainly his imagination. As they reached the door, Jack got more and more excited, even beginning to giggle like a little kid on Christmas day. Upon entering, Jack immediately left the others, hurriedly leaving to go straight to the catwalk stage.

"Well, there goes Jack. We might see him later on." Willow said as he watched him leave. Nero had already blocked his vision of the catwalk by using his hand to obstruct his view. The strobe lights and stereotypical sexualizing song blaring from the speakers were enough to make Nero incredibly nervous as it is, he wasn't quite ready to subject himself to seeing the half-naked women just yet. Surprisingly, there was a reasonable amount of patrons in the club, much more people than Nero would've expected for this religious town.

"Here, there's a nice booth over there, we can sit there for now." Willow said after scanning around the club. "I can babysit Nero until he's confident enough to at least look in the general direction of one of the women in here, you go have fun." He told Dante, causing Nero to voice some objections to being 'babsat', but his voice was drowned out by the music.

"Nah, it's fine, I can help make sure the kid's fine for a while. There's no rush, I'm sure the ladies will still be here." Despite saying this, he couldn't help but watch the various beautiful women strut around as he spoke with a smirk. After all, there were quite a few ladies showing their interest in the elder hunter. There were some taking a look at Nero as well, but considering his face was mostly covered by his hand, they quickly lost interest; meanwhile, Willow could only barely be seen, as he was on the other side of Nero, thus being hidden by Nero's body.

"If you insist." Willow said with a shrug. "C'mon, let's go this way, you can hold my hand for comfort if you want." He coddled in a teasing manned. He grabbed Nero's arm and led him towards the booth before Nero could voice anymore complaints. Seating Nero down first so that he wouldn't be on the edge seat of the booth, Willow sat down at a booth that was located near the back of the building. Following behind them was Dante, who sat on the opposite side of the two other men.

"See? Is this really so bad?" Willow asked with a reassuring, yet still teasing, smile. Gingerly, Nero moved his hand away from his face, having gotten up the nerve to start looking around. Upon seeing one of the scantily clad waitresses, he immediately averted his gaze.

"I don't like this.." He mumbled, which given how loud the music is in hear, his quiet tone wasn't heard.

"Just sit back and enjoy the view." Dante told him, though he received no response from the nervous man. One of the waitresses in the club walked over towards the three men. This particular woman was quite busty, a size that was in no way naturally possible for her small frame. She had a seductive smile with lips much too big for her face and long, blonde hair that likely was not her natural color. Amazingly, unlike the other women populating this joint, her face wasn't completely caked with makeup, though she was still wearing just enough to obscure the natural beauty she would deny she has. 

"Hey boys." She said seductively. "Can I get you anything to drink?" She smiled at each one individually. Willow didn't seem to catch her interest; Nero piqued her curiosity for a few seconds, but upon seeing he was too nervous to keep steady eye contact with her, she moved on to Dante. Flashing her a signature charismatic smirk that was likely an unconscious act by now, the woman smiled wider and more flirtatiously, apparently satisfied that she had found the man she wanted to reel in for the night. "What about you, sweet cheeks? You look like a thirsty man." She flirted.

"Mmmm.. I'll take whatever you're selling, babe." He intentionally responded with an innuendo. Humming a "hmm" in response, and strategically placing her hand on his shoulder briefly, both to show her interest in him and to nonchalantly catch a feel of his muscles, her smile continued to grow. 

"I'll get you a drink of our best liquor." She decided. "Don't worry about the bill - it'll be on me." She winked at him flirtatiously before she left them. Knowing Dante would watch her leave - and he did - she made sure to swish her hips an extra amount as she walked in order to accentuate her butt. When the charming man did turn back towards the other two men at the booth, he was met with a knowing smirk by Willow and a disgusted glare from Nero. 

"What?" He questioned Nero, confused by his disgust.

"Can you be anymore appalling?" Nero's voice was laced with revulsion. 

"Whaddaya mean? She flirted, I flirted back." Dante defended, smirking the entire time. The younger simply looked away from him with a huff, apparently too grossed out to even look at him. "Aw, don't be jealous. I can flirt with you too if that'd make you feel better." He offered teasingly. Nero pretended as though he was going to puke in response to his offer.

"I'd rather swim through a muddy, parasite-filled, crocodile-ridden river." He added to further convey his lack of interest. "With piranha's in it. And I would have just walked through a field of broken glass." Nero continued to add in more details to what he'd rather do than be hit on by Dante under his breath. 

"You know, you outta go ahead and take the plunge with her, if you know what I mean." Willow suggested to him.

"Nah, I couldn't do that." Dante said as he turned his attention to Willow, though he offered no excuse as to why.

"Sure you can. She's clearly interested in you." Willow pointed out. Seeing that Dante was about to make some excuse, Willow spoke again. "Oh c'mon, didn't you say you've been 'out of the business' for a while now?" 

"Well, yeah, I just-" Dante began, but was interrupted. "Then tonight can be the night that you get back into the game!" Willow urged him.

"Don't encourage him to do something he doesn't want to do." Nero told Willow defensively. Secretly, he really didn't want Dante to get down and dirty with that woman. He's always been protective over his friends, and the thought of them having sex with anybody would gross him out. But he got an odd feeling about the idea of Dante having sex that he didn't experience with the others, even though the man is a notorious player. Nero brushed off the feeling as it just being a combination of the situation and his nerves already being on edge from being in this deplorable establishment. 

"Oh hush Nero, he's a big boy, he can make his own decisions." Willow told him, and so Nero resided to simply watching Dante to see what his decision would be. 

"You know what, you're right." Dante told Willow his decision after mulling it over for a few seconds. Immediately after, almost as if she knew, the waitress returned to their booth with Dante's drink. 

"Here you go sweetie." She smiled as she placed the drink in front of him. "Enjoy." Her statement implicated she was going to leave, but instead she stood there, waiting for Dante's response. 

"You know, to be honest," He began, looking up at her with a smirk a devious as her seductive smile is. "I don't think one drink is enough to satisfy me." Nero let out a disgusted groan, but neither seemed to notice. 

"Oh my, we sure are hard to please, aren't we?" She flirted as she placed her hand on his tricep, giggling cutely as she did so.

"To the contrary, actually. One drink is just a tease. I don't want a tease - I want the whole pitcher." 

"I see.." The waitress slowly moved her hand down towards his foreman enticingly. "How about I take you to the back and show you what I've got then? You can have whatever you like for as long as you want, honey." If there is a such thing as a sin, her eyes were full of it as she looked at the muscular man before her.

"Mmm, I like that idea." Dante flirted. "I just hope you don't run out of stock." He winked at her.

"Oh don't worry honey, I've got enough to last you all month long." She said before she slightly tugged at his forearm, which triggered Dante into standing up. Exchanging one last sinful look, the woman led Dante towards what can be assumed to be a backroom to the club or a storage room. Had Dante of looked back at the two guys he was leaving behind, he would've seen the worried and concerned look on Nero's face as he walked away. The young man was feeling a mixture of emotions. Oddly, he was mostly feeling a sense of being abandoned, coupled with concern for the elder. After all, he told himself, she could rob him while he's distracted; but then again, Dante was broke, so there wasn't much of a chance he'd lose much money. Out of all the distractions in the room, the blaring music, the naked women… the only thing Nero could focus on was the man in red as he left. 

"Talk about a 'happy' birthday, eh?" Willow commented as he grabbed Dante's drink, then began drinking said drink, figuring it's owner won't be back anytime soon. Once Dante was gone, Nero became quiet, and stayed that way the rest of the time he was there, which wasn't that long. He went home about an hour later, uncomfortable with knowing that the old man was shacking it up less than 50 feet away from where he was at. 

After spending a couple hours blankly staring at the ceiling in his room at his and Kyrie's house, Nero decided to get up and go to headquarters. He had been having this awful feeling that something bad was going to happen to Dante, and so had gone to make sure he had returned safely. Finding that the room Dante normally sleeps in was empty, he attempted to stay awake until Dante returned. He had decided to sit on the bed he used to sleep in a while back, since the room has two beds, while he waited. Apparently, at some point, he must've drifted off, because the next time he glanced at the clock, it was already 2am. Nero glanced around the room as he rubbed his eyes, and spied a large lump in the other bed. After his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he was able to see that the lump was actually Dante, who must've sneaked in at some point without waking Nero. Satisfied that he must be alright if he's already fast asleep, the young man fell back to sleep soon after, not caring that he's supposed to be at home instead of being here.

\-------------------------------

As normal, Nero was wide awake by 9am, though the other man in the room was showing no signs of getting up anytime soon. Usually, he'd make him get up anyways, but decided Dante deserved to sleep in since the old man just turned 34 the day before. It wasn't until 1pm that said man left his room. Yawning loudly and stretching widely, Dante looked around to see if he could spy anybody that's still around. It didn't take him long before he stumbled upon Jack in the living room.

"Hey man! I heard you got you some action last night. Nice!" Jack said as soon as he saw the other man, smirking. He was sitting on one of the couches in the room, and judging from the tv being on, he was probably watching tv before Dante came in. "What was she like?"

"Nah, I don't kiss and tell. Sorry." Dante also said with a smirk. 

"Aw, too bad. At least somebody around here's getting laid." Jack mumbled his last sentence. "Unlike me and poor Nero here." He said, looking at the couch in front of him now, where Nero is supposedly at. Dante was unable to see him due to the couch's back facing him, and he assumed Nero was laying down, since he couldn't even see the top of his head. 

"Oh shut up." Nero grumbled in a tired voice. He slowly sat up on the couch, having been previously laying down and napping. "Mine is by choice. You don't have a choice, women just don't want to sleep with you."

"Ouch, that's harsh, Nero." Jack said, though he seemed unphased as turned his attention back to the tv screen. "Will you at least say if she was good or bad?" He questioned Dante. Shrugging, Dante answered.

"Sure. She was pretty good." He made his way over to the couch Nero was sitting on. Said man let out a grossed out 'ugh' in response.

"You'll understand when you're an adult." Jack teased Nero, who responded with a breathy 'whatever' before looking over at the tv. 

"I, um… I did have an issue though." Dante admitted. 

"Hey, it's okay. ED is nothing to be ashamed of, it's perfectly normal." The young white-haired one jokingly reassured Dante.

"No, not that. Well, I don't know, actually." Dante's lack of joking caused Nero to immediately look over at him, now concerned since Dante's serious tone must mean he actually had a problem. Jack was also surprised by this, and he too refocused his attention to the man in red.

"What… what happened then?" Nero questioned curiously. 

"Well, I, um… I had to, uh… fantasize." He said quietly. He wasn't really embarrassed so much as he was confused. 

"Oh! That's not a big deal." Jack said, laughing a bit to ease the tension. "I've been with some pretty ugly broads before. Sometimes it's a bit difficult to 'get your horse running', so you have to fantasize. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Yeah I know that. But, uh…" Dante paused to try and figure out how he wanted to word what he said next. "I've never had to fantasize a specific person." Jack said a faint 'oh', understanding his issue now. 

"I see, I see…" Suddenly, Jack smiled widely and stared at Dante with a knowing look. Dante reciprocated his look with a confused look, raising an eyebrow at him. "You know what this means, right?" 

"No?" Of course he didn't know what it meant. If he knew, he wouldn't of swallowed his pride and told them about his problem!

"This means the untame-able womanizer, the Son of Sparda, has fallen in love!" Excitedly, Jack stood up from the couch, ran over to Dante even though there was only a three foot difference between them, and began hugging and shaking him. "My little boy is all grow up!" Dante, meanwhile, laughed.

"I'm not in love." He said, still chuckling at such an absurd idea.

"Yeah Jack, there's a different between being 'in lust' and being in love." Nero spoke up. 

"Well, actually, you can be both." Jack smartly pointed out.

"He'd know if he was in love." 

"Not necessarily." Jack looked over at Dante, who had been looking at either Jack or Nero, depending on who was speaking. "Dante, have you ever been in love?"

"Not that I can remember." He joked.

"See?" Jack looked back over at Nero. "He wouldn't know the 'symptoms' of love." 

"Symptoms?" Dante questioned, a smirk still on his face as he still didn't believe love is the reason he had to fantasize, looking over at Nero for an explanation. Nero sighed before speaking.

"Different people experience love differently, but there are a few things that most people will experience when they have a crush on somebody." He began. "Like, being touched by their crush."

"Touched, as in, sexually?"

"Not really. Just a simple, innocent touch. Like this." Nero put his hand on Dante's shoulder. Dante noted that his stomach suddenly felt like it was churning. Ugh, must've been something he ate yesterday coming back to bite him…. "Just a simple touch like this by a person's crush would cause butterfly's in their stomach."….Huh? "Or them getting too close." Nero demonstrated by scooting closer to Dante, whom noticed that his heart seemed to be going a bit faster than normal all of a sudden. "This could cause a few different responses, usually either sweating or a faster heart beat." He explained before both removing his hand from Dante's shoulder and moving back to the spot on the couch that he was sitting in before. This didn't make any sense to Dante, though.. "And of course there's other things, like getting lost in their beauty, wanting to spend every waking moment with them.." Nero found himself to be smiling, apparently getting lost in reliving his own experiences. He turned to Dante. "You'll find yourself taking almost every opportunity to see them, especially if you can't see them every day." With this, Dante looked ahead of himself blankly, thinking hard about what Nero said. 

"Huh…" Dante said simply.

"So, tell us, who's the lucky lady?" Nero questioned with a smirk.

"You wouldn't know 'em even if I did tell ya." Dante joked. He was still confused over what he had just been told, but.. He decided he'd rather deal with it later.  
"Is it Lady?" Jack guessed.

"Are you kidding me? She shoots me if I even look at her a few seconds too long."

"You don't choose who you fall in love with." Nero said, and boy, wasn't that the truth..

"Yeah, but not her." He thought to himself how there may have been a time, back in the time when they first met, that something could've happened between them. But after Lady made it literally painfully clear she wasn't interested, Dante moved on.

"What about Trish?" Nero guessed this time, but he quickly received a definite 'no' by Dante, in the form of him shaking his head side to side.

"That'd be too weird. She was made to look like my mother, you know." Dante said, chuckling a bit.

"Oh, I didn't know that…" 

"I've gotta go ahead and go." Dante decided a few seconds later.

"Aw, we didn't mean to run you off." Jack whined as Dante stood up from the couch.

"Nah, that's not why I'm leaving. I'm sure I've got a few jobs waiting for me at home, I don't want to get behind again. Lady and Trish would never let me live it down." He explained as he walked to the room's door, but then turned to face the others before exiting. "Oh, and Nero, thanks for trying to wait up for me." He flashed him a smirk before quickly exiting the room, before Nero could get defensive and/or make up some excuse for being asleep in his room. As he exited headquarters, Dante couldn't help but recount last night's memories. The waitress was beautiful - with an equally nice body to match. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing, and did it perfectly. Yet, despite her near-perfect body and arousing moves, and no matter how hard the poor man tried, he couldn't seem to get his 'engine' going. As a last ditch effort, he fantasized about random women; women with larger breasts, a larger ass, longer hair, different colored hair - he tried it all, but nothing was working. He wasn't sure how this particular person slipped into his mind, but quickly found that imagining them was finally doing the trick. At first, he didn't question it, but as soon as everything was said and done, he realized what he had been fantasizing. Figuring it was a fluke or just his mind messing with him, with the woman's consent, he tried again and again, but found that, each time, he was unable to get anywhere without fantasizing about that one person. This was quite horrifying to him. Why this one person? What was it supposed to mean? Why, if he did have a so-called "crush", did his mind wait until now, when he's 34, to develop these feelings for somebody? But, above everything else, _why THIS person?_ It made absolutely no sense to Dante. This person had a personality that was almost the opposite of his own! They were attractive, yes, but a person can recognize beauty in another without falling for them. The whole situation was too confusing for the poor man to comprehend right now, he'd figure it out later. But the one question that bothered him throughout his entire journey home, the one question that he couldn't get off his mind, was this: Why did he have to fantasize about Nero, of all people?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *As stated, names are important in the demon world. In our own folklore, when preforming exorcisms, you have to know the name of the demon in order to completely cast it out. I believe it was mentioned in DMC 1, but taking or erasing a demon's name essentially destroys their identity. Or something to that effect, it's been quite a while since I played DMC 1! Knowing this, there's nothing saying that demon's don't use names for other purposes.
> 
> So, it seems some bets going on between the Holy Knights got Nero into a bit of trouble, causing an awkward situation between him and Dante. From what I've seen, Nero actually does have a nice looking butt. You can see it sometimes in DMC 4's cutscenes whenever his coat is flapping and it's quite nice for somebody who I assume has a good amount of muscle! Also, considering how Nero reacted to seeing Gloria(Trish)'s bare thigh in the game, I can't imagine him being comfortable in a strip club. And then of course there's the ending, where I left off with a confused Dante, who now seems to have a problem on his hands.


	15. Dante's Got A Date?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero's got a surprise and Dante's got a date!

August 23rd  
It was such a beautiful beach. The sunset's reflection glimmered across the vast ocean's gentle waves; it's purple, red, and orange rays projecting a breathtaking rainbow of colors against the sea. There was a slight breeze in the air. Not enough to move the trees, but just enough to cause a small ripple along the otherwise calm waters. The white sand beneath his bare feet was a comforting warmth against his skin, as it nicely complimented the warm air that ran around the rest of his body. A few seagulls could be heard, softly calling from the trees behind him. Yes, this beach was quite beautiful. But it couldn't compare to the beauty that was beside him. He gazed at the waves and the sunset, admiring it's awe inspiring beauty, before looking to his side, to the person standing beside him. The man before him was much more perfect than any sunset or beach in the world. His soft features, the way the sun shined off his smooth, pale skin, all in combination with his baby blue eyes and snow white hair that looked as soft as a cloud. Said man turned to meet his gaze, smiling at him. God, his even smile was perfect! Perhaps today was the day? The day he would finally feel what it was like to kiss somebody he actually cared about? As he leaned in for the kill, it seemed so, as the man did not back away from him, as he feared he would. In fact, he even leaned in to meet him. Mere inches apart, he closed his eyes. "Dante…" The man's soft, low voice was like an angel singing in his ear. "Dante." Wait, who's this? This distorted voice isn't the man's.. 

"DANTE!" Startled, Dante jumped up from his previous laying position into a sitting position. He had fallen asleep on the couch again. 

"Dammit Lady, what is it?" He replied, rubbing his eyes with his hand in frustration as he propped himself up on the couch with his other hand.

"You were dreaming about him, huh?" The woman teased. She had her arms crossed tightly against her chest, wearing a sly smirk as she looked down at the sleepy man in front of her. 

"You know, I told you about that night in confidence." Dante told her in an airy, non-serious tone, with 'that night' being the night he spent with the waitress. He stopped rubbing his eyes and looked up at Lady.

"In confidence? You got drunk off your ass for the entire day after you came home and eventually I was able to pry out from you why you were drinking so much."

"Oh give the poor man a break." Another woman defended from the other side of the room. "Haven't you ever been in love?" She asked Lady. Dante peered over at the woman, seeing that the voice came from a certain blonde, busty woman named Trish perched up on his desk, her legs crossed and her hands resting on her knees.

"Me? In love? Never." Dante interjected sarcastically. "I wouldn't do that to the ladies." He joked with a smirk.

"Yeah, this man isn't capable of falling in love. His brain can't handle such complexity." Lady teased before she sat down in the empty space on the couch. With Lady now on the couch, Dante felt the need to sit up fully, swinging his legs off of the couch and planting his feet onto the floor. 

"And you can't handle keeping a secret, eh?" He retorted jokingly, referring to how Trish apparently knows now too. Lady just shrugged off his retort and leaned back into the couch with a proud smirk. 

"A lot of things make sense now, though." Trish told him, jumping off of his desk as she spoke.

"What makes sense?" He questioned.

"Everything. Why you mostly stopped drinking alcohol, why you stopped sleeping with random women, why you stopped going to your favorite place of all time, Love Planet. I thought you were just getting old," She smirked to add to the fact that she's just teasing him. "but it makes sense now." She continued. "You changed after you went to Fortuna. Ugh, I can't believe I didn't figure it out myself.." Trish mumbled the last part to herself, mentally cursing herself for being unable to connect the dots before.

"Nah, I didn't change. I'm just taking a break."

"From sex and booze?"

"…Yes." Dante said confidently, but due to his initial hesitation, Trish didn't buy it.

"Then why do you dream about him? Why'd you think of him that night?"

"I dream a lot of weird things, and I don't know, I guess I'm just in a funk from going without any nookie for so long. I hear going without it for too long will warp your mind or something." Dante leaned back into the couch, placing one arm up on the couch's back rest.

"You're avoiding him though." Lady accused him.

"No I'm not?" He turned his head to look at Lady, a questioning expression on his face.

"He called you right after we finished that mission a week ago and you ignored his call."

"I was tired." He said coolly. 

"He called again just a few days ago at lunch and you ignored him again."

"I was eating."

"Okay, then what yesterday when he called you while you were sitting here, doing nothing?"

"I wasn't doing nothing, I was watching my favorite show." He said, quickly making up some excuse.

"Hasn't he sent you a couple texts too?" Sighing, Dante responded without another excuse.

"Okay, maybe I just don't want to see him right now, alright? He is quite a ball of rage, he can be exhausting." Dante turned his attention over to the tv that was currently on, since he had fallen asleep watching it. 

"Exhausting? For you? This kid must really be special then." Lady said, surprise in her voice. "No wonder why you have a crush on him." She threw in a tease. Dante just smirked and shook his head side to side in response to Lady, more in disbelief that she's pushing the issue so much than in saying 'no'.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, you know." Trish spoke up again, this time with more care and concern in her voice than teasing.

"I wouldn't be ashamed." He said. "It wouldn't make sense, but I wouldn't be ashamed."

"Why wouldn't it make sense?"

"Well, for one thing, he's 19, and I'm not a cradle robber." Lady and Trish exchanged surprised glances, though Dante was too busy watching tv to notice. "For another thing, he's got a personality practically the opposite of mine. And, most importantly, he's a guy. I don't like guys." Dante explained, chuckling lightly a couple times as he spoke to show how absurd of an idea it'd be. "I only sleep with women." He added to reiterate that he didn't like men. 

"Dante, do you forget that you're not fully human?" Trish questioned.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Dante looked over at the woman.

"Demons, well, they don't fall in love, that's a human emotion. But they do chose mates. They don't chose based on gender, but based on beneficial traits that the potential mate may have." Dante scoffed at Trish's words.

"So you're telling me that, in this make believe scenario where I like Nero, it'd be because of my demon side?"

"Yes and no. Your demonic side is going to look for a good mate for practical, logical reasons, while your human side will look for somebody for emotional reasons." Trish smartly explained. 

"And after _all_ these years of being with women, my demon would choose to be with a man?" Dante emphasized 'all' to show how silly he thought this whole conversation is. 

"Well, it's hard to know your demon's motives, but yes." She said. "It'd make sense. Logically, your demon side would want you to reproduce with as many women as possible in your youngest years, then settle with a capable mate." Trish looked over the fingernails on her left hand idly as she spoke.

"But a _man_? That just doesn't make sense."

"Nero makes perfect sense, for both your sides. He's got a temper that keeps you on edge, he's unpredictable, a great fighter, and, most of all, you two share something that is unique to only you guys." Receiving a confused look from Dante, Trish continued. "Your both cambion's, half-human and half-demon's."

"Oh, right." Dante pretended to be disinterested as he returned to watching tv.

"Fine." Trish waved off his act. "You can ignore your feelings all you want, but you can't ignore him forever. It's been two weeks since you last talked to him, and clearly he needs to talk to you about something." Dante figured she did have one thing right. Normally, Nero wouldn't try so hard to get in contact with him, so something must be up. The texts he sent him were vague, so there's no telling why he's been calling and texting him. Dante watched the television for a little bit longer as he contemplated how he should handle the situation.

"I suppose you're right." He admitted, causing Lady and Trish to look over at him, having had joined him in watching television during the silence.

"I know I'm right." Trish huffed. "Go ahead and take the day off to go visit your little crush - oh I'm sorry, I mean your friend. We'll take care of any jobs that come in." She added with a smirked.

"The day off? Hell, you can tease me all you like if it gets me the day off!" Dante stated, smirking, as he stood up from the couch.

"Don't tempt me." Trish jokingly warned. "Go have fun. But not too much fun, he does have a girlfriend you know."

"Right." He chose to give her a sarcastic look rather than get defensive. "See ya ladies later." He said as he walked to the entrance of the shop. Assuming the two women had already waved him off or gave him some form of goodbye without him looking at them, he left the building. Walking around the corner of the building, he spied his motorcycle sitting beside the wall, and began his short trek towards it. Reaching it, he climbed onto the seat as he grabbed out his keys. Placing the key into the ignition and turning it, the motorcycle started with ease, as always. He kicked back the kickstand while positioning his hands onto the handlebars. With that, he drove off onto the street, towards the Fortuna ferry. The trip to the ferry takes a while, leaving Dante alone with his thoughts as he drove. To be truthful, he did know there was something odd in his feelings towards the young man. He wouldn't label it as 'being in love' or 'having a crush', but there was definitely something fishy going on. There was no way he was going to tell the women that though, so long as he values not being tortured with teases and jokes for the rest of his life. Despite his uncertainty, he couldn't just ignore him when clearly the kid needs to talk to him about something. As he neared the ferry's dock, he began to feel a bit guilty over not responding to Nero. I mean, he could've at least given him some lame excuse for why he couldn't talk rather than outright ignoring him, but he figured that's why he was coming to Fortuna in person rather than just calling him back. Coming all this way makes up for disregarding his calls and texts, right? Dante hoped so…

Arriving at the ferry dock, he parked in the adjacent parking lot. He could take his motorcycle onto the ferry, but considering he rarely traveled around in Fortuna, it was easier to just leave it here than mess with taking it onboard with him. Ensuring his precious motorcycle was properly secured, he walked onto the dock, then onto the ferry. He was about 20 minutes early for the next trip to the city, so he made himself comfortable on one of the ferry's benches. Eventually though, the 20 minutes passed, and the ferry made its way to Fortuna's dock. He exited the ferry and began walking his usual path towards headquarters, where he assumed Nero would be, considering it's nearly 2pm and he should be on duty by now. Before he made it to headquarters, though, he spotted the white haired hunter, who seemed to be walking in the direction of his and Kyrie's house. 

"Hey, kid!" Dante called out, which immediately grabbed the younger's attention, causing him to stop and look around until he spotted the man calling him. 

"Hey! I've been trying to call you, you know." Nero said, greeting him with a rare smile as he changed his original path to walking towards Dante.

"Yeah, I know. Reception at the shop sucks, figured I'd just come down and see what all the fuss is about." He greeted him back with his usual smirk rather than a smile. With Nero closer, Dante almost immediately noticed a change. He was no longer wearing his rose-emblemed ring on his left hand's ring finger. Instead, there was a gold band, which stood out next his other, gray-colored metal ring. This caught his attention so much that he had no idea Nero was speaking to him, making Nero notice that the other man was curiously staring at his hand. 

"Oh, this is why I've been trying to contact you." Dante finally heard him, and so he looked back up at his face. Nero held up his left hand to further show him his new ring. "I'm engaged." He said with a wide, proud smile. As Dante shifted his eyes to the ring, and upon hearing Nero's announcement, he felt as though his chest collapsed on itself, preventing himself from breathing, causing a feeling of intense pain centered solely on his sternum. Yet, this pain felt different from pain he's felt before… and he's experienced almost every kind of pain you could think of. His heart rate didn't change, but he was able to hear the rhythmic beating getting steadily louder, drowning out the noise around him. "Dante?" He snapped back to reality with this, realizing he had left his mouth slightly agape in shock.

"You proposed?" He was able to find his words again, though the pain in his chest persisted, causing Dante to wonder how he's getting enough air to speak. 

"Yup. Last week, right before I first called you." He said proudly with his smile returning, placing his hand back down to his side. 

"You're so young though." He said, dumbfounded. "I mean, are you sure you want to tie yourself down to just one woman when you've got so much more life to live?" Dante joked, regaining his composure and trying to play off his initial out-of-character reaction.

"Well, I know we've only been dating for a few months… but I've known her all of my life, and I know I want to always be with her." He explained, his smile being replaced by his more normal, serious, solemn expression. Dante crossed his arms across his chest as he nodded understandingly, though he had no words to add to his gesture. "I want you to be one of my groomsmen." He told him after a pause of silence. Dante, who's eyes had wandered away from Nero during the quiet, looked back over at him with a questioning and surprised look.

"You sure you really want _me_ to be a part of your wedding?" After all, he wasn't really a touchy-feely or formal type of guy. Nero should know that after he had dragged him to the Festival of the Sword dance.

"Sure, why not?" He questioned rhetorically. "I figure you can't cause too much trouble if your just standing there." Nero smirked to add to his joking tone.

"I'm honored that you trust me that much." Dante joked, adding a bit of sarcasm.

"I trust that you're at least not going to _intentionally_ cause trouble." He added. "Anyways, I'm going to get Kyrie, and I'll be back at headquarters in about 30 minutes. She's been bugging me to go ahead and start planning, which is why I've been calling you." Nero explained quickly before he began walking towards their house again, giving Dante a quick 'bye' before he left. As Dante watched him leave, he realized his chest was still badly hurting. He tried to feel around his chest for the source of the pain, but found that, no matter where he applied pressure, the pain neither intensified or reduced. It was as if the source was a deeply internal wound. " _Must've gotten a bullet stuck in there from yesterday's job, and now my body is trying to get it out… I'll deal with it later._ " He told himself this, but still, the pain of a bullet has never felt like this to him before. It was almost as if the pain wasn't even physical. As he walked towards headquarters, he found his legs to be fatigued and weak, as if he just finished running several miles. Powering through his body's questionable behavior, he continued to the headquarters building. Perhaps he was just getting sick. He hadn't been sick since before his devil trigger activated when he was 19, but he did remember being sick, and the feeling of sickness was similar to this. 

Upon entering headquarters, Dante was greeted by a very excited Jack attacking him with a hug. "Have you heard?! Our little boy is all grown up!"

"Haha, yeah I've heard. Got himself a new ball and chain too." Dante joked, referring to Kyrie. He awkwardly patted Jack's back briefly, before he let go. Dante never did know how to properly respond to sudden friendly hugs.

"I heard last week, but I'm still so happy!" Jack said, jumping up and down a bit.

"Lucky for you, you got to miss Jack's uncontrollable crying he had for those first few days." Willow teased, as he leaned up against a doorway.

"I'm a very sensitive man, okay?"   
"Yeah yeah. C'mon, Dante." Willow gestured with his hand for Dante to follow him, and Dante obliged. "You came just in time. Kyrie wants to start planning, but Nero wanted us to help him first, since we're his groomsmen."

"Me? Help?" The man in red questioned sarcastically as he followed Willow into the room that Willow had been leaning on the doorway to. The room seemed to be one of the many study rooms in the building, since the walls were covered by bookshelves filled with books. There were also three large tables in the middle of the room. 

"You are a groomsman, aren't you?" He briefly looked back at Dante before sitting down at the middle table.  
"Apparently so."

"Don't worry, our part won't take long." Willow reassured him as Dante sat beside him.

"Oh I can't wait! They haven't set a date yet, and I'm dying with anticipation!" Jack said, walking into the room as well and sitting on the other side of Willow, at the head of the table. 

"Now, being a groomsman is more than just standing behind the groom and wondering if you'll get to spend the night with one of the bridesmaids throughout the ceremony." Dante and Jack looked over at Willow, giving him their attention. "We're going to be Nero's go-to men. If he gets nervous, we'll be there to help him. If there's a problem at the wedding or the reception, we're going to fix it. If he tells us to jump, we'll ask him how high. Understand?" They both nodded their heads. "Good. Now, as I'm sure you both also know, Nero doesn't like to ask for help. He'd rather get pissy than admit he's in over his head. So, if you think he might need help, offer it to him. As the best man, most of these responsibilities will be left to me, but-" 

"Best man?" Jack interjected. "He didn't say you were best man, I'm going to be best man!"

"Oh Pa-lease, you're too immature to handle being best man. Nero needs somebody who's older and wiser than himself to be his best man." Willow argued.

"Older and wiser? You're only 29! By your standards, Dante should be best man!" Before Dante could voice his opinion, somebody else spoke up.

"Nobody's gonna be the best man." All three men looked over to the doorway, where Nero was standing with his arms crossed and with Kyrie standing behind him, peering over his shoulder.

"What? You can't do that! You have to have a best man!" Jack whined. 

"I'm not going to make the decision on who's going to be best man out of you three." Nero told them as he walked in, taking a seat in the seat across from Dante. Kyrie closely followed in behind him, sitting next to Nero, of course. She had a cute, innocent smile on her face as usual, and she looked at Nero with complete admiration, but just as when he saw her at the dance, Dante could feel something different about her. 

"Why not?" He continued to whine.

"Because I could never make that decision. You've been my friend since elementary school." Nero spoke to Jack, then gestured with his head towards Willow. "Willow's been watching over me since before I can remember, thanks to Credo making him babysit me when I was a kid." He looked over at Dante briefly. "And Dante is the reason why I'm even here to get married." He was referring to the fact that Dante saved him from being permanently absorbed into the Savior. "Even if he was an asshole and valued Yamato over my life." Now he was referring to Dante's comment about how Nero 'can't die before giving him his sword back', just before Nero was absorbed. 

"I was just messing with you, kid." Dante said with a smirk, adding to his joking tone.

"Yeah, whatever." He didn't believe Dante. "Anyways, Kyrie told me she's already found a dress and apparently everything on her part has been taken care of." Kyrie eagerly nodded in agreement that's she's taken care of her stuff already.

"Everything?" Jack asked in disbelief. 

"Mhm. I've been waiting for this day for a while, I planned out everything a long time ago." She smiled widely. Jack gave her an impressed look.

"So we first need to decide tux's." Nero continued, which prompted Kyrie to pull out some paper from a nearby desk. "I don't mind paying for your tux's, but I can't afford all that much. Any ideas on what we should do or where we should go?"

"Hmm…" Willow said out loud as he thought. "What about Jerry's Tuxedo Rentals?"

"It's impossible to get a tux there, they're always all rented out."

"Kim's Formal Wear?" Jack suggested.

"Way, way too expensive." Nero said.

"Where'd you get those tux's for that festival dance or whatever?" Dante was referring to the Festival of the Sword dance. 

"The Order rented those from some company overseas. They got some kind of special deal or something." Nero explained.

"What about Kyle?" Kyrie suggested next.

"Nero's boyfriend? That's a bit rude to ask him to help us, don't you think?" Jack joked. Scoffing and rolling his eyes beforehand, Nero responded.

"No, Jack. After Kyle left town, he became a tailor." Kyrie nodded to confirm Nero's explanation.

"Ohhh. Is he any good?" 

"No idea, but I'm not asking for perfection if he'll give us a discount." Immediately realizing what he said, Nero looked over at Kyrie with a worried look. "I mean, if that's okay with you." She giggled, smiling at his dedication to making her happy.

"Of course, sweetie. I don't have to have a perfect wedding to know I'm marrying the perfect man." Kyrie reassured him, causing Nero to smile warmly at her. This statement struck as strange to Dante. With her innocent, delicate, and stereotypically feminine personality, he thought Kyrie would have dreamed of having the biggest, most impossibly perfect wedding since she was a little girl. 

"I'll go ahead and give him a call then." Grabbing out his phone, Nero dialed in a number. He placed the phone to his ear and waited. 

"Wow, I haven't seen Kyle since he left town.." Willow filled in the silence.

"What'd he leave for?" Dante questioned.

"Well, not everybody is crazy about the whole 'worship this demon who saved us all a couple thousand years ago or you'll be damned'-type vibe that you get from living in Fortuna." Jack explained, with Dante nodding understandably. He certainly wouldn't be able to stand it. "He dropped out of school at 16, and I guess he must've become a tailor."

" _Nnnneerrrroooo_!" A high pitched squeal came through the phone, causing Nero to jerk the phone away from his ear until the sound stopped.

"Hey Kyle." He responded airily, chuckling a bit from Kyle's over-excited reaction.

" _It's been too long! How are you? What's going on? Is everything okay?_ " Kyle continued to talk loudly, making his voice audible to the others.

"Everything's fine. I'm getting married though, and-" " _You're getting married?! Oh my God, I can't believe this! Frank! Frank! Nero's getting married!_ " The last bit sounded as though he was talking away from the phone, to another person. An ensuing sound of what could be assumed as a happy sound came through the phone, causing Nero to, yet again, move the phone off of his ear.

"Ah, Kyle, still as gay as ever." Jack spoke to nobody. 

"It's nice to know some things never change." Willow commented. Dante didn't have anything to say, after all, he didn't know Kyle, so he opted to cross his arms and lean back in his chair as he waited for Nero to end his conversation.

" _Who's the lucky lady? Or gentleman, I certainly can't judge!_ " 

"It's Kyrie." Nero placed the phone back onto his ear. "Hey, but, I can't really talk right now. I just wanted to know if you'd be willing to tailor some suits for us?"

" _Oh honey, of course I'll do that for you two! And don't worry about cost, it'll be my wedding present! Oh I'm so happy!_ " There was a pause where only a couple, deep breaths could be heard, likely from Kyle trying to calm himself down. " _Okay, what day do you want me to get the measurements?_ " The deep breaths must've worked, he sounded much calmer now. 

"Uh… I suppose whenever you're free."

" _I'm free Wednesday at 5. Does that work?_ " Wednesday was three days from today.

"Yeah sure, that's fine."

" _Great! I'll see you then, bu-bye!_ " Nero said goodbye back before hanging up.

"Well that solves one problem." He commented as he put up his phone.

"How long will it take for him to make the suits?" Kyrie questioned as she wrote some things down on the piece of paper in front of her.

"Hm… there's four of us, so maybe a couple weeks? I don't really know how long that stuff takes."

"Oh okay, I just wanted to make sure it'd be ready in time." Kyrie said sweetly.

"In time? It won't take more than a couple months to make the suits.." Now Nero sounded confused.

"We don't have a couple months though?" Kyrie questioned, now confused as well. "I thought we discussed we'd get married no later than a month from now..?" Only a month? This visibly surprised everybody, including Nero.

"A _month_? Sweetie, isn't that kinda pushing it? I know you said you wanted to get married soon… but a month? I don't think we'll be able to get everything you want planned by then." Clearly, he was not expecting her to want to have the wedding so soon.

"That's okay, we'll just scrap whatever we don't have time for. I'm okay with a small wedding." She smiled at him, but Nero was obviously at a loss for words.

"But.. It wasn't that long ago that you were telling me about how you dreamed of the day you'd get to have a big, beautiful wedding?"

"I know, but I don't have to have that, as long as I'm marrying you." Kyrie wrapped her arms around his and leaned up against him lovingly, since she was sitting beside him.

"Well, um…" Nero looked for something to say, but the look of confusion and surprise on his face said it all. "I guess you guys can go ahead and go. I had some other things I wanted to talk about with you, but uh.." He thought to himself for a few seconds, evaluating what to do, before then shaking his head no to himself. "There's no way we'd have it planned and booked in less than a month." He looked over at Dante. "Sorry you had to come all the way out here, Dante." Uncharacteristically, he looked genuinely sorry, since he knew that it's a long way from Capulet City to Fortuna.

"Nah, it's fine. I needed some fresh air, away from the shop." He flashed him a brief smile before he stood up from his chair. The other two men stood up as well, but were too speechless to say anything, and instead walked out of the room in silence.

"Hey, will you be able to make it back out here Wednesday?" The younger questioned.

"At 5? Yeah, I can do that." He walked towards the door. "See ya 'round, kid." Dante smirked at him before exiting the room, though he was able to see Nero roll his eyes with a smile on his face before he left. He liked seeing him smile. It wasn't an incredibly rare event to see, but it was uncommon enough to make the times when he does smile more special. Before he was able to question himself on why Nero smiling makes him feel happier, he was bombarded by Jack and Willow, who had been just outside the door.

"A month? Is she insane? You can barely scrape together a decent ceremony in a month, and that's if you're lucky!" Jack protested, but quietly since they're just outside the door.

"Is it really that hard to put together a wedding?" Dante questioned, since he himself had no prior wedding experience, he figured a month was plenty long.

"Around here, yeah. Fortuna has a relatively small local population, but we're a hotspot for weddings. People love our beaches and the beauty of the island, so they all flock here to get married." Willow explained. He put his fingers to his chin in a 'thinking' position. "Geez.. A month… She'll really be pushing it, but I guess it's possible."

"Are we still going to have time to put together a bachelor party?" Jack questioned.

"A bachelor party?" Dante said, a bit surprised. "I don't think he'll like having a bachelor party." He said, considering Nero can't even step foot into a strip club without getting embarrassed.

"No, we're not getting strippers or anything. Well, maybe one.. But that's it." Willow said. 

"What's the point in a bachelor's party if there's no women?" Dante asked.

"Well, there may not even be one now. I'll have to find out what date they decide on and go from there. I'll be sure to keep in touch with you though, so you'll know what's going on." After Willow finished speaking, Jack suddenly started sadly moaning and groaning, causing the other two to look towards him.

"Oh my God… I'm so alone…" Jack moaned, breathing deeply as though he's going to cry. Willow rolled his eyes.

"What're you talking about?" His tone was displeased, as though he wasn't in the mood for Jack's immaturity right now.

"Well…" Jack breathed in deeply before he looked up from the ground, at Willow. "You've been in a relationship for four years… and now Nero's getting married.. And I'm just rotting away, I haven't dated anybody in two years!" 

"Oh get over yourself, you're only 19." Willow reminded him.

"Yeah, but… You two are gonna be focused on your wives now… You'll want to start families… and I'll just be left here, all alone! Forgotten!" 

"Well," Willow began. "we're not going to leave you behind, but if you're really that worried, why don't you take a woman out on a date and start putting yourself out there?" 

"I would, but… Women scare me. I get so nervous when it's just me and a woman. I end up making a fool out of myself and get too embarrassed to go out with them again.." Jack said sadly, his eyes having wandered down to look at the ground solemnly. Without warning, he perked up and, smiling, looked over at Dante. "Hey! You're single, right?" Dante, who had only been half listening to their conversation, directed his attention back to Jack.

"Uhh.. Yeah." He wasn't quite sure why he was being asked this, since he hadn't been paying attention.

"Awesome! We can go on a double date then! I've actually been trying to get the courage to talk to this woman who gave me her phone number a couple weeks ago.. I'll just ask her if she has a pretty friend for you!" Jack said with excitement.

"What? Oh no, I'm not really the type of guy to go on dates…" He smirked as he said this, but he wasn't trying to brag, he just didn't have any desire to go out on a date. 

"Oh I know, you're Mr. Studly who only hooks up with random women." Jack teased. "But please, won't you do this, for me? You never know, you might like her!" He pleaded. Dante was quite apprehensive to this proposal.

"I don't know, I just don't like going on-" "He's not going to stop pestering you until you agree." Willow interrupted him. Before responding, Dante briefly pondered his options.

"How come you don't want to double date with Willow and his girl?" Dante pointed out.

"Eh… They've been together too long, they're like an elderly couple now." Jack received a glare from Willow for that. "C'mon, please? We'll just have dinner, you don't have to commit to anything more." As he thought it over, Dante watched Jack as he gave him a begging puppy dog look, before looking away with a defeated sigh and a small smirk. 

"Okay, okay. I'll go on a double date with you." Dante caved. Squealing like a little girl with excitement, Jack grabbed Dante's arm and jumped up and down. Resisting being shaken about by an excited Jack, Dante chuckled at him and how easy it is to make him happy.

"Oh I promise you won't regret it! I'll make sure your date is plenty hot, don't worry!" And with that, Jack let go of him and ran off childishly. Willow laughed at him as he watched him leave.

"Where on earth is he going?" He commented, to which Dante shrugged jokingly as he too watched the man-child run away.

"Who knows." He added. At that moment, Dante's phone began ringing. Patting around the outside of his coat, he came up with nothing. He hurriedly patted the inside of his coat, looking for his phone before it became too late, and found that his phone was in one of his interior pockets. "Hey, what's going on?" He answered. Willow stayed where he was at; curious and with nothing better to do, he listened to Dante talk on the phone. "No that's alright, I'm done here." There was another pause. "Yeah I'll be over there in a couple hours." There was another pause, in which Dante said 'okay' before hanging up and placing his phone back into his coat. With an eyebrow raised, Willow watched Dante, waiting for an explanation. "Oh," Dante said, noticing Willow was still there. "Trish called me, something about a big job tonight."

"She can't handle it herself?" Willow asked curiously.

"Nah, she's a big girl, she can do it herself if she wanted. But she said the guy who hired her is paying a good chunk of change if it can get done quickly, and Lady's out doing her own thing." Dante further explained.

"Ah, I understand. Go have fun then, I'll tell Nero you had to leave." Willow patted Dante's arm as a nonverbal goodbye, before turning and beginning to walk away.

"Thanks." Dante said briefly to him, before he too turned away, and began walking towards the entrance. His trip back to the docks, then back to Capulet City was one he knew well by now. Well enough that he could leave his body on 'autopilot' and trust he'll make it back fine, which left him free to think to himself. He found that his trips back and forth to Fortuna were really the only times he could think to himself; after all, it was the only time he was forced to do nothing. Generally, he was either on a job, eating, sleeping, watching tv, or reading a magazine, never really letting himself deeply think to himself. He had developed this trait of avoiding his own thoughts soon after he lost his brother. Dante wasn't sure if Vergil had died, or if he somehow lived and made it back to the human realm, but he found it best to not dwell on his thoughts about it, and eventually, he just stopped dwelling on any of his thoughts. He figured what will happen will happen, regardless of how much he underthinks or overthinks it, and so there's no point in getting lost in your thoughts instead of living life. But on these trips to and from his home, he had no choice but to ponder his thoughts, as there was nothing else to distract him from doing so. It was actually a bit refreshing to him, though. Even if he didn't understand, or didn't want to understand, some of his thoughts. Though, of course, those questioning thoughts were the ones he was unfortunately drawn to think on. 

Despite all his pondering, he still wasn't sure about Nero. If he does have a supposed crush, he wouldn't be ignorant enough to deny it to himself, but the fact of the matter is that he didn't know. There were some things that would unintentionally slip into his mind that he would consider odd, not to mention the so-far innocent dreams he's been having, but he didn't want to jump to any conclusions. I mean, he's always up to get a peek at Trish or Lady's ass, and he does have the occasional dream about them, but that doesn't necessarily mean he loves them. But then again, they were both women, and it's only natural for him to try and sneak a peek at a woman, and there's no telling how many women he's had dreams about, but a man? No, it was safe to say he's never had this happen to him concerning another man. But that doesn't mean he loves the kid just because this hasn't happened to him before. Maybe his mind is just confused, since he's never met another half-human half-demon hybrid before, and it doesn't know how to handle being friends with somebody like himself. Perhaps he should just talk to Trish. But then again, he hated serious discussions, and there's always the chance that whatever he says to her will come back to bite him in the ass later on. And what was going on with his body earlier? He felt fine now.. These were just some of the many thoughts he dwelled on during the time spent going back to the shop. 

Finally arriving at the shop after what felt like an eternity, Dante busted though the doors, making his presence well known to anybody within the shop. Pausing and waiting for some kind of greeting, he heard no noises inside the building, and felt it was safe to go ahead and flop down onto the nearby couch. He had figured Trish would be here by now, but she may have gotten tired of waiting on him and left for a bit. Dante exhaled loudly and deeply, relaxing his body into the couch cushions as he placed his arm over his closed eyes, blocking out the shop's lights.   
"Long day, huh?" Trish asked him. Hearing her voice, Dante slowly uncovered his eyes, opened them, and looked around until he spotted her.

"Ah, I thought I'd have a few minutes to relax." He explained before beginning to sit up.

"No no, you're alright. We don't have to leave for another half hour." And so, Dante fell back down into the cushions. "So, tell me, how'd it go?" She asked with a wide smile.

"How'd what go?"

"Oh don't act stupid, you know what I mean." She perched herself up onto one of the couch's arms, next to Dante's feet. "Did you tell him?"

"There's nothing to tell." Dante brushed off her question, peering over at her. Trish rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"You guys are so stubborn. You mean to tell me you went all the way out there and didn't tell him how you feel?"

"How I feel? Well I was a bit hungry, but I figured he couldn't really help me with that." Trish paused in her response in order to glare deeply at Dante.

"I meant that you like him."

"Yeah, he's a good friend, but I'm sure he knows that." Trish slapped his leg, since it was the closest thing to her, causing Dante to flitch and fake that he actually got hurt by saying 'ow'.   
"You know damn well what I mean by 'like'." There was a brief pause before Dante tiredly sighed and placed his arm back over his eyes. "You have to tell him." She pried.

"I don't have to tell anybody anything." Dante said, his tone no longer joking. 

"You won't be at peace with yourself until this gets resolved. What if he feels the same way?" Trish drilled.

"Trish, he's getting married." Dante's tone now was a mixture of exhaustion and serious, which was an odd tone to hear from him. 

"What?" She responded in disbelief.

"He's getting married."

"To that girlfriend of his, what was it…Kyrie or something?"

"Yeah." There was a long pause after Dante's response. 

"I'm…. I'm sorry to hear that." Her voice sounded sad.

"Why? There's nothing to be sorry about." He said as he peered out at her from under his arm. 

"Of course there isn't." Now she sounded even sadder, perhaps even with a bit of pity. "When's the wedding?" She asked, now trying to change the subject.

"In a month."

"A month?" Trish asked, surprised. "Why so soon? Is she pregnant or something?" She questioned, and received a simple shrug from Dante as a response.

"I guess she's just really eager to get married." He added. "I've got a date though. One of Nero's friends, Jack, is forcing me to go on a double date with him." Dante said, sighing lightly to convey his distaste of going out on a date. Suddenly, he felt his bangs being swept to the side of his face, and he quickly moved his arm off of his eyes. Looking up at Trish, he saw her gingerly moving his hair off of his forehead and onto the side of his face, much like a mother would do when comforting her child. 

"I'm sure you'll have fun then." She smiled at him, but her expression showed how sympathetically she felt for him. Dante just stared up at her with an eyebrow raised, confused by her actions. "C'mon, we gotta go now. Don't wanna be late." And with that, her expression returned to normal, and she walked towards the door. Still confused for a brief few moments afterwards, he snapped himself out of his daze and shot up from the couch, following behind Trish, out of the shop and back into the dusk air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't really imagine Trish being the motherly-type, but she seems to understand his feelings better than he does, and she probably feels empathetic for the poor guy.


	16. A Not-So-Pleasant Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While writing this chapter, I realized something. I'm already now 16 chapters in, over 70k words, and there been essentially no Dante/Nero action! In fact, even I'm getting anxious for them to hurry up and get on with it. With that being said, I hope you didn't mind this long wait too much. I wanted to clearly establish a reliable friendship before anything at all started happening. However, don't worry, things with them are gonna start moving along here very, very soon! Perhaps maybe even in the next chapter, who knows?

August 27th.  
The days came and went and before Dante knew it, it was already Wednesday. The time passed quicker than normal to him, but he figured that was because he'd been keeping himself busy ever since he got back to the shop. The rest of his routine was pretty normal, save for one thing. Generally, the man in red can fight pretty much any enemy he encounters on a mission by himself. Sometimes, one of the ladies will accompany him out of boredom, with the condition that they understand they won't get a cut of the pay he earns. Though, in the end, if they were to ask him for a cut of the profit, Dante would give it to them without hesitation. In these last few days, he had been taking on a larger-than-normal amount of missions per day - much to Lady's annoyance, as he was starting to cut into her jobs - and so, the two women offered to tag along with him to make things easier on him. To their surprise, rather than receiving the usual sly 'you can come if you can keep up'-type remark, they were told he'd rather do the missions himself. It was odd for him to essentially tell them no, but Trish figured he simply wanted to be alone right now. After all, how else are you supposed to react whenever you find out the friend you may have feelings for is getting married? She was grateful he was choosing to deal with the news by becoming solitary though, rather than spending the days drinking away his life. Trish was afraid he may turn to alcohol and liquor to cope with his feelings, after finding out he had gotten drunk on at least a few occasions before he confessed why he was drinking to Lady, who later told Trish. Not only would it have been a pain in the ass to drag him home each and every night, the bill they would likely end up paying for him would put a large dent in their finances… 

Right now, Dante was rushing to get over to Fortuna. He had underestimated how long it would take him to complete his last job, and now he was running late. It was already five o'clock, the time he was supposed to meet Nero, as he pulled into the dock's parking lot. Lucky for him, the ferry makes a trip back to Fortuna every hour on the hour, and he managed to run on board just before it left the dock. It wasn't until 5:30 that he was able to finally make it to headquarters. He made his way to the second level of the building, then found a room labelled "213". Nero had texted him the day before that they were to meet in this room, and so after briefly ensuring he had the right room, he opened the door and walked inside without bothering to knock. Upon entering, he saw Jack putting on his white Order-issued trench coat; Nero was sitting in a chair with his arms crossed, apparently waiting for somebody other than Dante; and Willow was fully dressed and rummaging through a nearby closet. Hearing the door open, Nero looked up at him.

"Hey, look who decided to show up." He teased Dante, relaxing further back into his chair afterwards.

"Yeah, sorry I'm late. Job lasted longer than I thought it would." Dante explained as he closed the door. "What'd I miss?"

"Well, you actually have pretty good timing. Kyle did Willow's measurements first, he just finished up Jack's, and now he's about to do mine after he gets out of the bathroom." Nero explained. "So you can just sit and wait for now." He stood up from the chair he had been sitting in, thus offering his seat to Dante, who gladly took up his offer.

"Be warned though, Kyle is a bit… different." Willow warned, having paused in his rummaging to look over at Dante. "And don't be surprised if he hits on you."

"Hits on me?" Dante chuckled. "I'm sure he won't be that bad." Willow simply shrugged and resumed what he was doing, figuring Dante will find out for himself soon enough. Just then, the bathroom door in the room swung open, grabbing everybody's attention.

"Alright, I'm ready for the next bachelor!" It was Kyle. To say the least, his appearance was nothing less than what you'd expect from a stereotypical gay man with a good taste in fashion. His voice didn't much help his case either, but at least he didn't sound obnoxious or intentionally flaunt his sexuality in your face with his voice. Kyle's eyes were immediately drawn to the new figure, Dante, sitting down in the chair. He smirked at him as he obviously looked him up and down. "Mmmm, who's this new piece of candy?"

"This is Dante. You know, the one I told you about?" Nero told him, speaking for Dante.

"Oh, the arrogant, egotistical, womanizing old man?" Kyle asked as he approached Nero, his attention now focused at the job at hand. He grabbed out a flexible measuring tape used to measure garments from his pocket as he waited for the man's response.

"Yup, that's him." Nero flashed Dante a proud smirk as he spoke. Dante scoffed at this with a smirk of his own. He knew the kid was teasing, or at least he hoped he did, so any insults Nero threw at him were brushed off. And, if nothing else, it actually only fed his ego more.

"Well, I have to say, I do have a thing for older men who know what they want." Kyle jokingly teased. "How old are you, honey?" He asked as he kneeled down on one knee in front of Nero, having begun measuring his legs and such. 

"Just hit 34." Dante responded as he crossed his arms and got comfortable in the chair.

"Why, he's not old at all! I've been with men much older than him." He said nonchalantly as he measured. This made Nero blush ever so slightly.

"Kyle!" He said in a reprimanding tone.

"What? Older men know what the hell they're doing. I mean, sure the young guys are nice to look at, but what's the point in going after a newer model if he doesn't even know how to control his engine?"   
"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Nero muttered, as he's still a bit embarrassed from Kyle's behavior. Dante just smirked and silently observed the situation; not only was he kind of being complimented by Kyle saying his age likely means he's better in bed, but Kyle embarrassed Nero, which is always fun for him to watch.

"Yeah, and he's 30." This statement changed Nero's previously half-disgusted expression to one of surprise. He must not of known this. "I'm tellin' ya, go for the older models. Both for men and women. Sure, their bodies may be a bit beat up, but they're reliable, always turn on when you need them to," Kyle moved up to measuring Nero's waist and hips. "and best of all, depending on what brand you get, it'll either be the smoothest or the roughest ride of your life, but either way, you won't be complaining in the end." 

"Oh, the euphemisms…" Jack said, not being phased by Kyle's words. If anything, he found it to be entertaining.

"I'll keep that in mind." Nero said, making sure his tone was an extremely sarcastic one.

"Mhm." Kyle hummed as he stood back up on both feet. He moved onto Nero's arms, and looked quite shocked to see the noticeable differences between the measured size of Nero's left and right arm. "Could you go ahead and take off your coat so I can get an accurate measuring of your arms? You must use your left arm more than the right, since your left arm is bigger." What Kyle didn't know is that the reason behind the difference in sizes is actually because one arm is human and the other is demon. Dante's smirk faded with this, knowing that Nero won't be too keen to expose his arm. Both Willow and Jack also stopped what they were doing to watch and see what would happen next.

"Oh… um… That's okay. I don't care if the tux is a bit too big." Nero said, scratching the side of his nose nervously.

"Nonsense! If I'm going to do this, I want to do it right." Kyle insisted. 

"It's alright, I don't mind if it's not perfect. You can just measure my left arm and make both sides that size." He insisted. Kyle paused for a few seconds, thinking over his options, before he shrugged.

"Okay, have it your way. I'll try to make it to were the difference in size of your arms isn't noticeable." Kyle resumed measuring, thinking nothing more of Nero's disproportionate arms. With the danger averted, the others returned to their previous states. Well, except for Jack, who anxiously looked at the watch on his wrist.

"Hey, how much longer is this gonna take? Me and Dante have to leave in about 15 minutes." Jack said.

"We do?" Dante questioned, turning his attention from Kyle and Nero over to Jack.

"Yeah! Don't you remember our double date?" Jack reminded him. With his curiosity now piqued, Nero looked over at the two men in question with an eyebrow raised. Willow seemed to pay no attention to their conversation, as he was there when the two were discussing it, and Kyle was preoccupied with getting Nero's final measurements.

"Uh.. Yeah, but I didn't know that was tonight…" Dante responded, trying to remember if Jack had actually told him and he'd just forgotten. Jack groaned and looked over at Nero with an irritated look.

"Nero! I told you to text him and tell him I set the date up for 6 tonight!" He accused.

"What the hell are you talking about? I didn't even know you two had a date." Pausing to stop and think before he responded, Jack had a look of hard concentration as he tried to remember.

"Oh… Maybe I forgot to tell you…" Jack admitted. "Well, no matter!" He perked back up immediately, being quite visibly excited about their date.

"Are you going to go like that?" Willow asked, pointing at Dante's clothes. In reaction, Dante checked himself over and examined his own clothes.

"Well… I didn't really plan on going on a date after this.. But I look alright." He said after his brief examination. Willow laughed quietly at him, then began to look through the closet he was standing beside.

"You can't go on a date in your work clothes." Willow told him. "I was looking through here earlier to see if a shirt I lost had been tossed in here. I didn't find it, but I know there's lots of nice clothes in here. I'll find you something nice." Before Dante could voice any kind of objection to this - after all, he was comfortable in the skin-tight clothes he was in and saw no point in changing - Kyle interrupted.

"Okay! It's your turn, hotcakes." He spoke to Dante. Scooting out of the way for Dante, Nero moved back several paces. Taking his queue, the elder man stood up and took Nero's place. "Now, do you know your shoe size, or are you like numbnuts over there who doesn't know how big his own feet are?" He pointed his thumb back towards Jack to clarify who he was talking about. However, Jack seemed to be engaged in a pre-celebratory solo dance of excitement, and failed to notice the insult.

"Uh…" Dante tried hard to remember. Was he a 12? Or a 10? No, that's too small.. Wait, maybe he's a 15? It's been so long since he last bought himself a new pair of boots. Speaking of new boots, it may be time for an upgrade, these ones are getting a bit worn.. 

"Dante?" Kyle said in a questioning tone, snapping Dante back to reality.

"I don't remember." He admitted. Scoffing, he rolled his eyes in a joking manner, as if expecting Dante wouldn't know. "Just take off your shoe and I'll look at its size." And so, Dante obliged. As he did, Nero spoke up.

"So, I thought you weren't the dating kind?" He asked idly. Nero was genuinely shocked to find that Dante would even consider going on a date, he didn't think Dante was anymore of a 'hit-it-and-quit-it' kind of guy, that going out on dates would just bore him.

"Nah, I'm not. Jack's afraid to go alone though, figured I'd help him out." Dante responded.

"Aw, how nice of you." The younger said sarcastically, making Dante smile proudly at him for a brief moment, pretending as though the younger's compliment was sincere. "You do know that women with morals actually have standards, right?" 

"Are you trying to say I'm not worthy of a nice woman?" Dante teased as Kyle began measuring him, having had found out Dante's shoe size by looking at the sole inside.

"No, no that's not what I meant!" Nero quickly defended. "I just mean…She might not appreciate being hit on as a greeting." He added. 

"I can control myself." Dante responded. "Probably." He added after a brief moment of thought on what he previously said. A few moments later, Dante spied the other man looking at him with a concentrated look out of the corner of his eye. Wanting to know what he was focused on, Dante turned his head to look at him. "You spy something you like?" He smirked.

"You're not even shaved." Nero stated, ignoring Dante's inappropriate comment. 

"C'mon, you know I don't usually have time to shave. What, women these days don't like a bit of stubble?" 

"It makes you look sloppy." Dante just scoffed lightheartedly at this before he returned to observing Kyle measure him. Nero crossed his arms with a now determined look. "You're shaving."

"What? No way." He brushed off Nero's threatening tone.

"Either you shave or I'll make you shave." Nero threatened him. Turning back to look at Nero again, he saw that Nero was being serious, and he choice to chuckle both at Nero's attempts to intimidate him and at the fact that he cared so much about him shaving.

"Fine, have it your way." Dante gave in, figuring it'd be easier if he just did as Nero said.

"Whew!" Kyle whistled, causing the two other men to look at him. They noticed now that Kyle is dramatically fanning his own face with his hand, with his other hand holding together the measuring tape that was currently around Dante's bicep. "They're almost as big as my head!" He added, taking another second afterwards to rapidly blink his widened eyes to further exaggerate how impressed he was with the size of Dante's muscles. Said man smirked proudly, but he knew the man beside him was probably rolling his eyes and muttering to himself. "Okay big guy, that's the last measurement." Kyle informed him as he removed the measuring tape and replaced the object with a notepad and pen from his pocket. "Now, I'm going to have to ask that you do not gain any more muscle for the tux to fit you perfectly. And, whatever you do," Kyle paused from writing in the notepad to point his pen accusingly at Dante. "DO NOT flex your arms while in this suit! You WILL rip it, and though all the women there will want to sleep with you afterwards, I will not be happy that my work was ruined!" He warned before he resumed his note taking.

"I'll try not to." Dante said, finding the notion that there would even be a need for him to flex as laughable.

"Yeah, try not to hulk out on Nero's big day, alright?" Jack joked. 

"Ah ha!" Willow exclaimed, quickly grabbing the attention of the others, save for Kyle. "Here's a nice pair of pants and shirt that'd fit you." He said proudly as he pulled out the garments from the closet.

"Good, now go into the bathroom, change your clothes, and get shaved." Nero told him, not giving him another option but to do what he says.

"Yeah yeah, I got it." He said in a reluctant tone, scooping up the boot he had previously taken off. Before walking into the bathroom, he grabbed the clothes from Willow as he made his way there. Truth be told, it's not that he didn't have time to shave, he just didn't like shaving. It made his face feel funny and he felt like a kid again with a baby smooth face, and not in a good way. Not to mention it's an endless struggle; he'll be back to having a sizable amount of stubble within the next couple days. Nevertheless, he did as he was told, just to get Nero off his back for the moment. Once he was finished up, he exited the bathroom, and was met with an awestruck audience before him, as if he just changed into a completely new person. Nero held a proud smirk on his face as he approached him.

"See? You look much more respectable now. Hell, you may even be able to deceive some people into thinking you're a gentleman."

"All I did was change my clothes and shave." Dante said, chuckling at him.

"It doesn't take much. Just look at yourself." With this, Nero physically made Dante turn around to face the full body mirror hanging on the back of the bathroom door. He had to admit, he did look pretty different. His hands lacked his usual biker gloves, his long coat no long hung off of him gracefully, and all of his other striking, flashy features had been replaced with… normal ones. Minus the white hair, he looked practically normal, which felt odd to him. He had on a regular pair of dark blue jeans and a normal collared, long-sleeved, button up black shirt. Strangely enough, none of it was pressed up against his skin! It was all somewhat loose, and the feeling of air, rather than clothing, against his skin made him feel like he was naked. Not that he minded that feeling though.

"I guess it's alright." Dante commented as he checked himself out.

"Alright, you look gorgeous, but we have to go now! We're supposed to already be at the restaurant!" Jack told him as he hurried Dante out of the room by pushing on his back, leading him towards the door.

"Whoa, what's your hurry? We still got time." Dante said with a smirk, though he heeded Jack's request to hurry up by slightly speeding up his pace to the door, but in a still relaxed manner.

"Have fun!" Nero told them as Jack rushed them out the door, though neither one had the chance to respond to him before they were already out of the room. 

"Boy, that sure is an impressive man. I bet no woman leaves his bed unsatisfied." Kyle absentmindedly said as he continued to write in his note book, smirking to himself.

"Kyle!" Nero scolded him a second time, furrowing his eyebrows at Kyle.

"What? I'm just saying the truth!" Kyle defended himself, his smirk having vanished upon being scolded. Nero rolled his eyes as he muttered a breathy 'right' to himself, before he changed the subject.

"Thanks for everything, this saves me a lot of trouble." Nero smiled at him for a few moments to further show his thanks. After speaking, he headed into the bathroom, where he gathered Dante's discarded clothes.

"Oh it's no problem dear! I don't mind at all. I'm just gonna finish up these calculations and I'll be out of your hair." Kyle responded without looking up from his note book. The other man exited the bathroom with the clothes under his arm.

"No problem, take all the time you need." Nero reassured him before he neatly placed the clothes on a nearby end table, so Dante could easily retrieve them. He then exited the room without another word. The rest of the night went off without a hitch, for both Dante and Nero. For Nero, he was initially concerned that Dante might give the poor woman he was out on a date with the wrong impression, and she might end up getting hurt. But, he waved off his concerns upon realizing that Dante's a complete mess. No woman would ever fall for his unintentional manipulations and go on more than a second date with him. And if she was just looking for a good time tonight, well, moral-less and unbiased Dante will surely take care of that.

Dante, however, would say differently. Him and Jack managed to make it to the restaurant just in time, without a minute to spare. He had been worried Jack set up the date at a romantic restaurant, were Dante would surely be clueless on the proper date etiquette, but to his relief, the restaurant was nothing like that. It was a casual restaurant, were both couples and friends alike could hang out and enjoy themselves. There were even some TV's hanging on the walls, showing a recent sport game, and perhaps most important to Dante, there was a bar in the back! The girl Jack had been wanting to ask out, and her friend, were clearly both relaxed women who had a nice sense of humor. Dante's date knew of his bloodlines, but luckily for Dante, she didn't seem to care all that much about it - surprising, considering they were still in Fortuna. Even more surprising was the fact that Dante actually enjoyed himself, something he didn't consider to be possible when out on an actual date. About this date of his, she was quite a beautiful women with a nice personality to match, something Dante rarely notices in the women he usually encounters. She didn't even nag him like Nero would whenever he ordered himself some whiskey! Speaking of the kid, there was another strange surprise. Having been so distracted on this double date, he found himself, for once, not thinking about him at all. Unknown to Dante, of course, he was able to unconsciously relax more because of this. Though he held no complaints, their double date lasted much longer than Dante thought it would, even going on until it was nearly midnight. Finally, the night came to an end once the restaurant informed them that they were closing, and so the four were forced to leave. Jack and his date left to go out on their own afterwards, but Dante and his date parted ways after she told him, after realizing how late it was, that she had to get up early in the morning to go to work, and so had to leave immediately if she wanted to not be dead tired the next day. He understood, and so she headed home as Dante headed to headquarters. He planned to take back his clothes, leave these odd, normal clothes behind, and then head towards the docks. Before the four of them split up, though, they had planned for another double date on Sunday at 7pm, four days from now. Unlike before, Dante didn't mind going on a double date this time. He didn't find his date to be romantically attractive, but she did make great company. Perhaps, though, he might change his mind on their next date and finally be able to get himself out of this funk he's been in. Or at least that's what he hoped would happen.

Unfortunately for Dante, that didn't end up happening. Sunday came along, and though they all had a great time again, he just didn't feel the spark he'd hoped for. She also seemed to feel the same way, as after their date ended, she told Dante that she thought they could be good friends, but that a dating relationship probably wasn't for them. Which, Dante fully agreed with her. Luckily, during the date, when he and Jack had been left alone at their table while the girls went to the bathroom, Jack told him that he now feels confident with his date and no longer needed Dante's support. So, he no longer had an obligation to continue going out on dates with this woman, for Jack's sake. He did, however, tell the woman that he would still help her out with a roof leaking issue she was having at her house in a week's time. She had been a bit late to their date, and when she did arrive, she apologized and told him that 'the incompetent inspector was taking his sweet-ass time figuring out that her roof leaks', despite the numerous buckets in her house that're filled with the water dripping from the roof from the recent rains. Dante, being the helpful gentlemen he is, offered to take a look at the leaks and see if he could fix it. After all, he's owned his shop for over a decade now, and since he can't afford to hire a professional, he had to learn how fix anything that goes wrong with it. Over the years, he's fixed roof leaks, busted pipes, clogged plumbing, and practically everything else that had to be repaired at the shop. Surely he could fix this woman's roof too. 

After their second and final date, Dante contemplated returning home that night, but figured the kid would throw a temper tantrum if he found out Dante visited Fortuna without him at least saying hi to him before he left. Though, because it was already late, it was almost certain Nero would have already gone to bed and wouldn't appreciate Dante waking him up at this time of night. So, in favor of keeping all his limbs, he opted to not wake up Nero and instead stayed the night at one of the guest bedroom's at headquarters. The next day, when he finally got out of bed, Dante was surprised to find that Nero wasn't in the building, even though he should've woken up long before he did. After his brief search through the headquarter's common areas, Dante encountered Willow, who informed him that today was Nero's day off. Sighing to himself, he then made his way out of the building and to Nero's house. Boy, just trying to say 'hi-and-bye' to the kid before he left was getting difficult… Nevertheless, Dante decided to go ahead and take the short trek to Nero and Kyrie's house. It was just a bit out of the way of the path to the dock, so it wouldn't kill him to take the five extra minutes. Besides, he needed to take a whiz anyways, and he'll be holding it for a while before he'll be back at the shop.

Nero's house was nice two story, quaint house of modest size. It resembled the other very old, stone houses that dotted Fortuna, but it had its own unique features, likely from Kyrie. Flower planters that hung on the window sill of practically every window held a beautiful array of colorful flowers, a decorative welcome mat sat in front of the doorway, and some outdoor décor hanging on the walls were just a few examples. Dante knocked lightly on the antique wooden door that was the entrance to the house; not out of politeness, but out of fear he might break the old door if he knocked too hard. He didn't have to wait very long before the door was opened for him.

"Hey Dante!" Greeted the very man Dante was seeking. In his hands was a hand towel that he was rubbing over his presumably wet hands. "C'mon in." Nero offered, and before he got a response from Dante, he turned away from him and walked back into the kitchen area, leaving the door open for said man and assuming he'd actually come in.

"Hey kid." Dante greeted back as he entered the house, closing the door behind him before he followed the other man into the kitchen.

"What's got you in Fortuna?" Nero questioned as he set aside his hand towel, onto the kitchen counter, and resumed hand cleaning the pile of dishes in the sink.

"Had a date last night." He responded simply. Why was there such a pile of dirty dishes? Kyrie was such a neat-nick, how could she make herself let so many dishes get dirty?

"Another one? With that same girl?" Nero questioned, surprise in his voice.

"Yeah."

"How'd it go?" To this, Dante shrugged, even though Nero had his back to him and couldn't see him.

"Pretty good. I'm supposed to see her again in a week." 

"Wow, a third date? I didn't think you'd make it that far. Or for that matter, that she'd be able to put up with you for that long." Nero teased. Dante opened his mouth with the intention of correcting him, that it wasn't actually a date, but decided not to, so that Nero wouldn't be given the satisfaction of knowing he was right.

"Yeah, I'm pretty undate-able. I don't know why anybody'd date me." Nero turned his head to look back at him, raising an eyebrow in suspicion at him, since Dante would never say anything bad about himself. "I mean, I'm only amazingly good looking-" and with that, Nero scoffed jokingly and returned to washing the dishes with a smirk, realizing he was just joking. "-and I've got a great personality." Alright, Nero had to laugh at that. Dante? Great personality? Nope, those two things don't mix.

"Oh haha, laugh it up." Dante joked sarcastically as Nero laughed. "I've gotta take a leak. Where's your bathroom again?" He asked and patiently waited for Nero's laughter to subside.

"I'll admit, that was a good joke." Nero fake complimented him after his laughter died down a few moments later. "My bathroom is out of order, a pipe busted and the whole damn thing floods if you use the plumbing in there. But Kyrie's bathroom is right down the hall, to your left. Just don't move anything and clean up after yourself if you make a mess." 

"Got it." Dante said before exiting the room. As he left, he heard Nero mutter "a great personality" to himself before going into a fit of quiet laughter. He followed Nero's directions and quickly found Kyrie's bathroom. It was pretty hard to miss, since even the door's exterior decorations were feminine. Upon entering, the femininity of the bathroom was practically breathtaking. Everything was prim and proper, even the various cases of different kinds of makeup and hair products scattered across the bathroom counter seemed to have a set order to them. While looking around and observing what a clean bathroom looks like, something his bathroom at home certainly wasn't, he closed the door. He also observed that the toilet had one of those fancy lid covers that looks as though somebody covered the lid in purple shag carpeting. With his observations of the room completed, he lifted the toilet's lid and seat and carried out his business. While doing this, his eyes wandered around the immediate area, and eventually looked over at the trashcan beside the toilet. His eyes lingered on the contents of this object, then he furrowed his eyes in concentration, as if doing so will help him see better. After he finished up, never taking his eyes off of the trashcan's contents, he stood there and contemplated what he should do. The object he was spying was a bit familiar to him; he certainly knew its purpose at least. He wrestled with himself on whether he should take a closer look at it or not. Eventually, his curiosity got the better of him and, after grabbing some toilet paper to cover his hand, he leaned over the trashcan and gingerly grabbed the very edge of the end of the item. He grabbed the end that he figured was the cleanest side and slowly pulled the object out of the trashcan, though just enough to where it was no longer submerged. 

There it was. The ominous plus sign that Dante hoped he'd never see in his lifetime, both in this situation and in his own affairs. Dante was so shocked to see that the pregnancy test was positive, that he stood there, leaned over, for several seconds, practically frozen with shock with his mouth agape. He did eventually drop the test and the toilet paper back into the trashcan and stood up straight, but he stayed standing in the same spot. There were so many questions running through his head, so many thoughts and so many… feelings. He had never felt so many different things at once. Surprise, shock, confusion, and… what was this other feeling? Irritation? That emotion doesn't make sense, why would he be irritated? As he finally got his wits about him and moved towards the door, he noticed that his entire body felt like it had been hit by a full-speed train. Well, he's never actually been hit by a train, but he figured this is what it must feel like. He exited the bathroom soon after and headed back into the kitchen, even though he didn't really know what he'd say to Nero.

"Hey." Wait, did his voice just crack? Dante coughed a bit to clear his throat. "I, uh… I guess congrats are in order?" He laughed lightly, albeit nervously. 

"Huh? What're you talking about old man?" Nero questioned as he dried off one of the last remaining dishes.

"You know, about you and Kyrie." He really didn't want to have to say it.

"Well I kinda thought you already knew we were getting married."

"No, well yeah, but that's not what I mean." Dante paused, hoping Nero would catch on. When Nero instead turned around to face him, crossing his arms and giving him a questioning look, Dante continued. "C'mon, you know, that you and Kyrie are having a baby." 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Now he sounded beyond confused and a bit irritated, perhaps thinking this is another one of Dante's jokes.

"Oh, I thought you knew.." Dante said, now feeling a bit awkward. Had Kyrie not told him yet? Did he just spoil the surprise? "There's a pregnancy test in her bathroom, and it's positive. I thought she would've told you as soon as she found out.." He rubbed the back of his head with his hand. Nero raised an eyebrow at him, and while uncrossing his arms, began heading in the direction of Kyrie's bathroom in an irritated fashion. Dante followed behind him, unsure of what else to do. The young man entered the bathroom, though the older man stayed standing in the doorway. He saw it once and he didn't really care to see it again. Dante watched Nero as he looked into the trashcan and presumably found the test, as his eyes suddenly widen for a second, before Nero dropped what he had been holding and immediately stood up straight.

"This has to be one of her friend's tests." Nero said confidently. Though Dante had his doubts, he didn't voice them, and instead continued to watch him. "I'll call her right now, I bet one of her friends came over a few days ago and took it while she was here." He pulled out his phone from his pocket as he spoke, and rapidly dialed in Kyrie's number. He waited anxiously as the phone rang. Finally, she must've picked up, as Nero started talking. "Hey sweetie, I know this is gonna sound odd, but have any of your friends been over in the past couple weeks?" Nero smiled hopefully as he spoke, speaking sweetly to her. As a few seconds tick by, his smile faded as he listened to her. "Oh, okay… No, I was just wondering." He still spoke in a sweet tone, but his mouth was slowly turning into a fearful frown. "Okay, I'll see you at dinner then." Hanging up, he just stared at his phone's screen for several moments, before he dropped the phone onto the ground, seemingly without caring if it broke. He braced his hands onto the bathroom counter and leaned over the sink slightly, placing all of his weight onto his hands, as if his feet can no longer support his own weight. Closing his eyes, he bowed his head. Despite all this, his face was rather emotionless, as if he was doing his very best to bottle up what he was feeling. A few more moments went by, and Dante, who was still standing at the doorway and unsure of what to do, decided to try and break the silence.

"Hey, uh… This isn't the end of the world you know." He figured that might be a safe thing to say, since Nero is clearly not happy with this news. 

"Get out." His voice sounded as though he was beyond anger, but his expression still lacked any emotion. Another few seconds went by, and since Nero did nothing else, Dante decided to speak again.

"Mistakes happen, I mean, it's not like condoms can't break.." He said more quietly. 

"Dammit, I said get _out_!" Nero yelled loudly, finally lifting his head back up and turning to look at Dante. His eyes burned with rage, yet.. He didn't actually seem angry. He's seen him mad before, and this wasn't it. His expressions gave the message of anger, but it was clear that message was deceitful. To Dante, Nero looked as though he felt incredibly saddened, and his sadness was being expressed as anger. Rather than questioning him about it, Dante held up his hands in submission and immediately backed away from the area, and upon hearing the bathroom door slam shut, he exited the house. There was no way he could go home now. He had to go back to headquarters and at least tell the others, since clearly Nero's very upset about all this and won't be okay for a while. He couldn't just leave Fortuna and hope Jack and Willow can figure out what's wrong with Nero, when he already knows what's going on. After retracing the path he just recently took and reentered the headquarter's building, he immediately began searching around for the two guys. Luckily for him, he easily found them, with both of them being in the kitchen, having a late lunch. 

"Hey, look who it is!" Jack exclaimed, spotting the tall man in red as soon as he walked in. "You want a sandwich?" He offered, taking another bite of his own sandwich that's in his hands.

"There's something wrong with Nero." Dante cut right to the chase, there wasn't much point for small talk right now. While taking a seat in the chair across the table from Jack and Willow, the two aforementioned men immediately stopped eating and gave him their full concerned attention. With Dante's tone being so serious, both of them know he isn't messing around.

"Why? What happened?" Willow questioned, setting down his sandwich.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story, but.. Kyrie's pregnant." The jaws of the two men in front of him practically dropped down to the table. "Yeah, but.. He's not taking the news so well."

"Oh my God.. I thought he was growing up too fast by get married at 19, and you're telling me my innocent little boy has been having sex AND impregnated her?" Willow suddenly sounded as if he were Nero's father instead of his friend, and began hyperventilating and having a mini-panic attack. Jack, meanwhile, seemed too stunned to do anything but sit there with his mouth wide open.

"Yeah I was surprised myself." Dante said, and waited a few moments to allow Willow to calm down a bit. 

"No, no… This can't be possible…" Willow said as he tried to regain control of his breathing. "Where is he? Is he okay?" He said, clearly still panicking.

"He's at his house. I think he'll be okay if we just give him some space, I just thought you might need to know in case he needs somebody to talk to." Dante told them.

"No! We have to go get him, we have to go talk to him right now!" Willow made to stand up, but Jack quickly stopped him by grabbing onto his arm.

"We can't do that! He needs to be alone right now. He'll come to us when he's ready." Jack told him, and Willow slowly and reluctantly sank back into his chair. He buried his hands into his face and muttered various things about how this can't be happening and that Nero's too young for this.

\---------------------------------------------------------

It was now midnight, and nobody had heard from Nero. Dante had decided to stay in Fortuna for the day until he was sure Nero would be alright; he still didn't feel right leaving town after all this. But now it was well past the time Nero usually goes to bed, and he's not at his house, not answering anybody's calls, and even Kyrie insisted she didn't know where he was at. They had resorted to checking every single room at headquarters after finding out he was missing, but they still didn't find him in any of the rooms. Everybody they questioned said the same thing too: They hadn't seen him today. 

"What if something happened to him? What if he got scared and ran away?" Willow shot off a dozen more questions. He's been practically freaking out ever since finding out that Nero's gone, and has been completely unable to sit still and relax.

"Wait, wait! I have an idea!" Jack announced, causing Willow to stop talking. Both him and Dante looked over at Jack. Despite the chaos of the past few hours, Dante had remained calm the entire time. He figured the kid's just getting cold feet and doesn't know what to do, but that they do need to go ahead and try to find him. "Aglaeca. He's a demon, can't he smell Nero's scent? Can we just use him to sniff him out, like a bloodhound?"

"That's not a bad idea, actually." Dante said after considering the notion for a second or two. He was a bit surprised he didn't think of doing that himself. It made sense after all, most higher demons have an incredibly keen sense of smell, and Aglaeca's even mentioned before that he's capable of detecting scents. Since he'd know Nero's scent well, theoretically, it would be easy for him to sniff out the half breed.

"Let's go then!" Willow stated before making a hurried beeline towards the basement's entrance, where Aglaeca was still at for the time being. Quickly, the other two followed behind him. "Here, Aglaeca's in here-" he said as he opened the door, but suddenly went quiet once the door was opened. He didn't enter the basement, instead freezing up at the doorway. Once Dante and Jack were able to catch up to him, they realized why Willow stopped. With the thick, metal door now open, they could hear the noise of somebody intensively sobbing inside. Slowly and quietly, the trio entered the basement, looking for the source of the sound. The basement is quite a big area with lots of cells, so the three men split up and tried to individually locate the source, hoping that might save some time in finding Nero.

Dante was the one to find him first. As he was looking around, he stumbled upon Aglaeca's cell, who's cell door was wide open. Peaking inside, he saw the demon, who he noted looked quite a lot healthier and had gained some weight since the last time he saw him. Aglaeca was sitting on the floor, with his wing tenderly covering up the sobbing young man in an attempt to comfort him. The said man was sitting right next to the demon, leaning up against Aglaeca's side as the elder draped his arm around his shoulders. Nero had his knees to his chest, with his arms wrapped around his legs and his face buried in his knees. You couldn't actually see his face because of this, but it was at this moment that Dante realized that, beneath the young man's angry, loner attitude, he really was still a sensitive kid at heart. He carefully approached the two, not wanting to startle Nero. Seeing his approach, Aglaeca turned his gaze from Nero over to Dante as he got closer to them.

"He came in looking for a place to be alone a few hours ago, but he forgot I was in here." Aglaeca explained to him quietly. Nodding to Aglaeca, Dante slowly sat down in front of Nero, again, not wanting to startle him or cause him to lash out. 

"Hey, kid, everything's gonna be alright." Dante spoke quietly, almost whispering to him. To try and get Nero to talk, Aglaeca removed his arm from Nero's shoulder and uncovered his wing from him, folding the limb back behind his back. After getting no verbal response, only quiet sobbing, Dante continued. "We're all gonna be here for you, we'll help you through this. You don't have to go through this alone." He reassured him. It was at this time that Jack and Willow found them, and silently sat down behind Dante. They were very much concerned for their friend, but also knew that he could still strike out at them in anger in his emotional upheaval, and so they used Dante as a sort-of human shield. At least if Dante gets hit, he'll be able to regenerate quickly, meanwhile the other two might be looking at a hospital visit if they get just one swift hit by Nero's devil bringer. Almost a minute of silence passed, though they all waited patiently to see if Nero would speak to them.  
"No.…You don't understand…" His voice cracked as he tried to talk through his tears.

"Of course we understand, we know you're scared. It's alright to be scared." Willow spoke.

"No.. It's not like that." Nero lifted his head a few inches off of his knees, but didn't yet look up at them. He rubbed his face onto his shoulder to try and rub away the tears onto his sleeve. "I'm not scared." 

"Being scared's nothing to be ashamed of." Jack reassured him.

"Just look on the bright side." Dante said next. "You might enjoy being a dad." 

"Dante.." Nero started, closing his eyes for a couple seconds to fight off the tears before he looked up at him. "How can I be a dad when I'm still a goddamn virgin?" His eyebrows were furrowed in anger, but not in anger at him. This left the other three men visibly confused. 

"Huh? But then how…" Jack began, but he immediately shut up once he realized. Since Dante had no response to him, other than to give him a stunned look, Nero continued.

"I calmed myself down after you left." He spoke again to Dante. "I waited until she got home at dinnertime, and I asked her what's been going on…" Nero paused. "I'm such a fucking idiot." He said before looking down at the ground in exasperation. "I actually believed her when she said she wanted to wait until marriage." It was obvious he was trying to restrain the cracking in his voice that indicated there were more tears in him. Then, Dante was hit with a surge of guilt when he realized the significance of what Nero just said. He knew that Kyrie didn't actually want to wait to have sex, and that she wanted Nero to be more romantic. She had told Dante this sometime ago, but he never did tell Nero about it. He might've been able to spare Nero this pain and sorrow, had he of actually taken her seriously and told him what was really going on with her… 

"But, she didn't." Nero continued. "She started meeting up with this guy while we were on that week-or-so long trip to find Aglaeca's brothers. That's why she wasn't calling me or answering my phone calls." Nero paused again to stare at the ground momentarily. "She made some bullshit excuse about how he charmed her or seduced her or some shit, but that he skipped town once he found out I was her boyfriend. Son of a bitch probably knew I'd kill him as soon as I found out. But, when she found out she might be pregnant a couple weeks ago, she started dropping all these hints on me about how much she wanted to get married." He looked back up at them. "So like a dumbass, I fell for it. She said she got up the nerve to actually take the test a few days ago. She kept going on and on about how she didn't want to trick me, that she really did want to get married… But I'm not that big of an idiot. She wanted to get married as soon as possible so she could say I got her pregnant, instead of admitting she cheated. I guess she didn't think I might find it suspicious that she'd be giving birth to a full term baby only seven months into our marriage…" Talking apparently had a therapeutic effect on him, as he seemed to be coping with the news better now. He was still very visibly upset, but he had stopped crying and had at least regained some of his composure. His eyes and cheeks were still red from the tears, though it's slowly starting to turn back into its normal pale coloring. The four of them realized that keeping Nero talking was likely the key to getting him back to a somewhat normal state, and so they did just that; they kept him talking. Even going well into the night hours, they kept up conversations with him, even if they weren't always about Kyrie or the current situation. In fact, they kept him talking for so long, that the poor kid eventually got so tired that he practically passed out on the ground. But, their method of talking through it with him proved to work, as they were even able to get Nero to smile near the end. Now, he just needed to rest and hope for a better day tomorrow.

Of course, they couldn't just leave him in the basement though. Since Dante was the only one of them strong enough to easily lift Nero up, and so wouldn't disturb his sleep that much, he was left with the task of carrying the slumbering teenager out of the basement and into the nearest empty bedroom. Figuring it was way too late into the night for the ferry to still be running, Dante settled into the second bed in the same room as Nero. Jack and Willow also soon retired for the night, and although they had homes they could go to, they chose to sleep in the bedroom next to Dante and Nero. That way, if need be, they'd be right there in the next room over. Luckily for the three exhausted men, Nero slept peacefully through the rest of the night, and even into the morning hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of an interesting tidbit, Nero cries in Devil May Cry 4 a total of three separate times over Kyrie. So yeah, you can say he's a bit of an emotional mess inside. However, Dante was never around the times he was crying, so I doubt he would've known this.


	17. Late Night Paperwork

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a normal night of filing away paperwork.

September 8th.   
The past week had been an emotional rollercoaster for Nero, starting after he found out Kyrie was pregnant with a child that was not his own. The first couple of days after finding this out, Nero was certain he was not going to go through with the wedding. How could he? He even took off his engagement ring, moved out of their childhood home, and into headquarters. After these couple days passed, though, he became unsure. For some reason unknown to him, he still wanted to marry her, but, he also didn't want to marry somebody he couldn't trust. He sought advice from Jack, though he quickly made it apparent that he was just as stumped as Nero, and wouldn't be much help. Figuring at least Willow might be of use, he asked for his help, but found that Willow was absolutely pissed at Kyrie and wanted Nero to completely cut her from his life. Nero didn't want advice given in anger though; he was upset enough without having somebody else fuel his bad temperament. He needed somebody who would rationally help him. As a last resort, he started texting Dante. The old man had gone back to his shop the day after and hadn't come back since, so texting was the only reliable way to communicate with him, as calling was always iffy. They're both busy men and the very few times he's tried to call him, either he or Dante has to cut the conversation short due to an impromptu job. At first, he didn't at all want to talk with him about the situation, not even casually. With Dante being such a carefree person, Nero figured that, even if Dante was capable of having serious conversations, he wouldn't be eager to help him out when he's probably got problems of his own to deal with. But, Nero didn't have anybody he trusted left to turn to.

Surprisingly for Nero, Dante really was capable of having important discussions. Even more stunning, he actually seemed to try and actively help Nero with his issue. They exchanged texts back and forth for two whole days, with several hours-long gaps due to jobs, sleeping, and so on. After all this time, Dante had been very helpful to him, but Nero still felt no closer to knowing what he should do. When he told Dante this, Dante responded with a simple question: Did he still love her? Well, if Nero was to be truthful to himself, the answer to that question was clear. He did still love her, despite what's happened. Dante then told him that was his answer to whether or not he should go through with the wedding. And so, after some further thinking, Nero decided that he wasn't going to let one slip up on her part ruin their relationship. Not after spending all these years chasing after her, then going through hell and back saving her during the Savior incident. He wasn't looking forward to raising a kid so soon in his life; he didn't want to even think about having kids for at least a few more years, but he figured it wouldn't be all bad. Maybe being a young dad would even be kind of good; it'd mean that he'd still be young enough to train his adopted kid how to fight, once he or she became of age. Even though the baby wouldn't technically be his own, Nero knew that wouldn't really matter to him. He'd still love the child regardless. 

Luckily, Kyrie seemed to have been hoping Nero would forgive her, and hadn't yet canceled any of their reservations. They had quite a long talk the night he told her he'd still marry her. In the end, they decided to go ahead and stick with the wedding date that had already been set, even though the wedding date was set for only a little over two weeks from then. They decided this because they had been able to pull some strings and managed to reserve the Grand Hall for that day, where normally the vicar would hold his sermons for the town. The Grand Hall didn't have another reservation opening for at least a couple months, so rather than waiting that long, they opted to make do with the remaining time they had before the ceremony. Despite them continuing on with the marriage, Nero was not going move back in with her. He still felt quite betrayed and wasn't ready to go back to living with her, at least not before getting married. Their relationship had become strained with the revelation that she was pregnant, but they were both hopeful that things would start getting better as the wedding got closer.

As for Nero, the decision that he'd stick with her was a sort-of relief to him. In the days between finding out and making his final decision, he had been going through periods of anger, sadness, and depression. Most of all, he felt incredibly lost. After all, now that Credo's gone, Kyrie was all he had left. Even now, a week after finding out about her pregnancy and a couple days after coming to the conclusion they would still wed, he still felt lonely, but at least he had the comfort of knowing that he and Kyrie still had a future together. So all had not been lost, there was still hope.

Right now, as he had been doing for the past week, Nero was taking it easy. Somebody, probably Jack, blabbed to the Order about what had been going on between him and Kyrie, and as a result, he hasn't been given very many jobs as of late. Not out of concern for Nero, but instead because the Order has a strict policy that those undergoing a time of emotional stress must be given only low-risk jobs, as they will likely be distracted and sloppy in their work. A distracted devil hunter is a dead devil hunter, after all. On one hand, Nero enjoyed finally having some extra time to himself, but on the other hand, he also loved the rush of fighting demons and missed being able to do so. Not to mention fighting is a good way to temporarily forget about your problems. He and Jack were currently in the headquarter's rest area, which was basically a living room, mindlessly watching TV, since it was the closest thing Nero could get to a suitable distraction from his life. Jack, whether out of genuine interest in watching television or because he wanted to be there for his friend, had spent much of the past week with Nero, watching TV with him between his jobs. Speaking of Jack, he and Willow had been surprisingly supportive of Nero's decision, even though he was certain they didn't actually approve of it, especially Willow. 

"Hey Nero?" Called Jack, taking Nero away from his thoughts. 

"Yeah?" He responded, looking over at Jack and noticing he was looking down at his wristwatch.

"Do you know if Dante's stopping by?" Jack looked up at Nero.

"I didn't know he was coming over?"

"Yeah, my girlfriend told me that her friend that Dante's been going out with told her that he's supposed to meet her at like 9 today." Oh, that's right. With everything that's been going on, Nero completely forgot that Dante had told him he was going on another date. But at 9pm? That's pretty late, isn't it?

"Oh yeah, he told me about that. I don't know, I suppose I can text him real quick and ask. It's already 8:30 so he should be near town by now, if he's supposed to meet her at 9." Nero responded, talking while he took out his phone and did as he said he would. Placing his phone back up after sending the text, he wondered to himself why Dante was meeting her so late in the day. "Why's he meeting her at 9? That's pretty late, isn't it?" He voiced his questions.

"Well I don't know why, but I'm sure it's because they're gonna have a late night rendezvous, if you know what I mean." Jack responded, a small smirk on his mouth as he did so.

"No, I don't know what you mean." Sighing at Nero's naivety, Jack explained.

"Sex, Nero. Geez, you don't really know how to take a hint, huh?"

"What? No, there's no way they've already gotten to that point." Nero said confidently, causing Jack to laugh at him.

"This is Dante we're talking about! He generally sleeps with women probably 30 minutes into knowing them." Jack told him, still sniggering. "Not that that's a bad thing. But I'm sure he wouldn't say no so long as she was down for it. And considering how attractive he is, I'd be surprised if she made it past the first date without wanting a piece of that." Nero thought on what Jack said for a few seconds before replying to him.

"So you really think they've already done it..?" He asked quietly.

"Hell yeah!" He exclaimed. Not too long after, Jack's stomach started rumbling. "Oh man, I'm starving…" He said, standing up from the couch as he rubbed his stomach. "You want anything?"

"Huh? Oh, no thanks." Nero was staring at the screen as he spoke. Not out of fascination of whatever show was on, but because he was thinking to himself, which is why he initially didn't hear Jack. He also didn't pay him any attention as he walked out of the room. Of course Dante's already slept with her. The man has no real standards, so long as it was female, human, and breathing, he would be good to go. He didn't like knowing that the man was so sexually active. Really, he didn't like knowing about any of his friend's sex lives, but considering how promiscuous Dante is, it especially bugged him to know about his love life. Nero figured this was just because he's very protective of all of his friends and would hate to see them get hurt or tricked by a woman. But then again, he's been the only one who's gotten hurt, and he didn't even have to sleep with his woman to get hurt… Though, still, he couldn't help but be protective. 

"Hey, kid. Whaddaya want?" Nero heard the man in question's voice. A bit startled since he didn't hear him come in nor did he hear him approach, he shot up into sitting upright, as opposed to his previously relaxed sitting position. Looking over the couch's back, towards the room's entrance, he saw Dante walking to the couch.

"Did you text back and I didn't know?" He questioned him as he took out his phone to make sure he didn't miss any texts. 

"Nah, figured I'd just stop by rather than take the time to answer ya." Dante said as he placed his elbows onto the top of the couch's back, next to Nero, folding his hands together and leaning over the couch slightly. 

"Oh, well actually it was Jack who wanted to know if you were coming over, you'd have to ask him. He's in the kitchen." Nero pointed over to the kitchen, even though he knows that Dante knows where it's at. Looking over in the direction of the kitchen, Dante stood up straight again, taking his elbows off the couch.

"Alright, see ya 'round then." He told Nero before leaving the room. Nero watched him leave before turning to look at the television screen again. The more he thought about Dante leaving here just to go hook up with that woman the more it started to slowly itch at Nero. God, why'd he have to ask Jack why they were going out on a date so late in the day? He knows this kind of stuff bugs him! By the time Nero noticed Dante walking past the living room's entrance in the hall, supposedly heading towards the door's to headquarters so he can leave, it had been 10 minutes and Nero's thoughts were practically driving him crazy.

"Hey, wait up!" Nero called out after spotting the man, who stopped once he heard Nero. Though, he had already just barely passed the living room's entrance by then, and so had to back up a bit to look over at him. He waited for Nero to explain what he wanted instead of responding to him.

"Actually, I need your help with something." He told Dante, having already stood up and was now making his way towards the other man.

"What kinda help?" Dante questioned.

"Well, you see, it has to do with the Order. They're making me do some stuff for them and I really need help with doing it all."

"Oh, uh…" Dante thought about what he should do, since he's supposed to meet that woman soon. "I wouldn't mind helping, but I've gotta meet somebody in like… five minutes or so." He told him, frowning a bit. 

"I know, I know… Is there any way you can reschedule?" Dante watched him as he thought over whether or not he should reschedule. "Please?" He asked, almost begging a bit. Wait, was he giving Dante a pouty look? Alright, there's no way he could say no to a pouting Nero. She'll just have to wait if she still wants him to look at her leaking roof, since clearly Nero must need him here.

"Okay, fine, you got me." Dante smiled at him. "I'll just call and tell her I'll meet her another time." He didn't like that he'd be meeting her so late in the day anyways, but this was the only time she was available on this day.

"Oh, thank you so much!" Nero said, pretending to sound relieved. "Let me go get the work I need to do." With that, Nero walked around Dante, who had been grabbing out his phone, and left the area. Now that he was out of range from Dante, he began having a mini-freak-out. Why the hell did he just make him miss his date? He didn't actually have anything important to do here! The only thing here that could be done at all was filing paperwork. Everybody has to do reports on missions they've completed, and everybody does this required paperwork, but nobody actually organizes and files their reports away, leading to there being a shitload of things piled up in the filing room. It's been that way since before Nero even joined the Order, so there's no telling how many files are actually in there. But, still, that stuff wasn't important at all. The Order doesn't even seem to care that nobody puts away their paperwork. Nero wracked his brain for several minutes as he tried to think of something else that might seem important for them to do, something that might seem like he actually needed help doing, but he came up empty. Filing away files would just have to do. 

And so, he made his way into the filing room. Upon entering the room, the dust he stirred up by his steps caused him to cough as he searched for the light switch. Finally finding it, he turned it on, and was able to observe just how old and dusty everything is, save for a pile of boxes of files that Nero assumed were of recent missions of jobs. "Geez, there really is nobody around here who does their filing after a job." He muttered as he looked around the room. "Well, then again, I don't even do my own filing.. I make Willow do mine.." He admitted to nobody. He picked up as many of the older boxes as he could, stacking them neatly in his arms. The extra dust and filth from the boxes choked up the air, and so Nero made as quick of a dash to get out of the room as he could. Carrying the boxes into the living room, Nero saw that Dante had must've already called his date and had made himself comfortable on the couch.

"You need help with that?" Dante questioned him after looking back at the younger man, having heard him walk in, though he made no effort to move. Probably because he figured Nero wouldn't let him help anyways.

"No, I got it." Nero predictably said as he plopped the boxes down onto the table in front of the couch Dante was sitting in.

"Is this it?" He asked as he waved his hand in front of his face in an attempt to blow the dust from the boxes out of his face.

"Nope." Nero huffed, finally able to breathe again without feeling like he's dirtying up his lungs. "I'll be back with more." He said before he exited the room again. Eventually, after several trips back and forth, Nero managed to bring all the file boxes into the living room. Collapsing down into the couch, beside Dante, Nero took a few seconds to relax after lugging in all those boxes, before he sat up straight. Dante eyed the mounds of boxes apprehensively during those seconds that Nero was relaxing, as the boxes now completely covered the table and much of the floor surrounding the table. "Alright, so this is how this is going to go. Every single file has to be filed according to who did the mission and when they did it." The older man looked over at him to show he was paying attention. "So, basically, each member will have their own pile, and the oldest missions need to be filed at the bottom, with the newer missions on top. Some of these missions were probably done by people who're no longer working here, but that doesn't matter, give them their own pile anyways." Nero explained as he grabbed a box, set it in his lap, then opened it up and started getting to work organizing the files inside.

"Alright, I'll try…" Dante said before he hesitantly grabbed one of the boxes. For what seemed like an eternity, they organized the endless amount of boxes of files. Dante must've accidentally cut his fingers on the papers at least a hundred times, but luckily for him, they always instantly healed. But that didn't stop the sting from each and every papercut he got. He was surprised at how far the files went back, there were even files about missions that were completed a decade ago! This clearly didn't seem to be urgently important to get done, not when you consider how long it's been neglected. Hold on, did he ever tell Nero that he wasn't actually going on a date? No, he didn't… That means Nero thought he was going on another date with her. This certainly wasn't important enough for Nero to make him cancel what he thought was a date! Dante knew it wasn't actually a date… but still, he knew Nero didn't know that. Why would Nero make him miss his "date", just to organize files that haven't been touched in 10 years? Surely Jack or Willow could've helped him, and would've been faster than Dante is too. He added yet another file to one of the large piles surrounding him and then grabbed another manila folder out of a nearby box. Did Nero want him to miss his date? And if so, why? After going through a few more unorganized files, asking himself why this was all so important, Dante came up with a possible answer to his questions. Was Nero jealous that he was spending time with somebody else? Why would he be jealous though, doesn't he spend plenty of time with him? 

"Alright, I'll organize these last few folders. You put your piles in separate boxes, so that I can haul them back to the filing room without messing up the order they're in." Nero told him as he grabbed up the last remaining files in the last box. Those were the last ones? Upon looking inside the box he had been organizing, he saw that the box was now empty, confirming that Nero had the last files. Whew, Dante was almost positive that the piles were never-ending! With the other boxes now empty, he started stacking his numerous, and now organized, piles of files into each box, being careful not to mess up their order. He certainly did not want to do everything all over again. The next few minutes of doing this kept him distracted from asking himself more questions.

"There, that's the last of mine." Dante announced tiredly as he turned to look at Nero, who was still organizing one last box.

"Good, thank you." He told him, stopping what he was doing even though he wasn't finished yet. "I'll go ahead and put these up then before I finish, so that there'll be more room around here." Nero said, then carefully stood up, making sure not to knock over any boxes from the couch or the table. He grabbed the boxes that surrounded them on the couch, then precariously stepped over the boxes on the ground, before making it out of the box-filled area and out of the room entirely. This left Dante alone, where his mind was free to wander again. Was Nero jealous because he thought he had a date? He didn't seem to mind him going on dates before. But then again, maybe he didn't think he'd get more than a couple dates… which he didn't, but again, Nero doesn't know that. If that was the case though, why would he get jealous if he thought things were going well between him and his date? Was this jealously over friendship… or jealousy because Nero doesn't want him seeing anybody? As Dante thought, Nero came back and forth into the living room, grabbing full boxes and then leaving again. Looking up at a nearby clock hanging on a wall, he realized it was already midnight. This must just be his sleepiness talking, there's no way Nero would be jealous that he was going out on dates… For a few seconds, Dante was confident with this conclusion, but since he was still alone and had nothing else to do, he found himself asking more question. What if Nero really was jealous? Did that mean the kid liked him, and didn't like the idea of sharing him with other people? He certainly made It known that he didn't approve of him sleeping with that waitress a while back. That didn't necessarily mean Nero had a 'crush' on him though, maybe he just simply doesn't approve of his lifestyle of hitting it and quitting it. But if he didn't have a crush on him, why would he have pulled him away from what he thought was a third date with a nice woman? Dante went around and around in his head with these questions. He knew he was just assuming things, yet, he couldn't help himself from wondering.

"Just one box left now." Nero said as he reentered the room, having taken away all of the full boxes by now. He sat back down in his original spot next to Dante, then picked up the remaining files beside him and continued to organize them into the last box that was in front of him. By this point, Dante was practically brimming with curiosity. He had to know why Nero made him do this. But he knew Nero would never tell him the truth if he just asked him. He'd just get defensive and make up some excuse. How could he get a definite answer from him? And then, it came to him. It was an absurd idea, really, but Nero's reaction would prove more truthful than any words he could say. It was incredibly risky though. Was it worth it? Dante pondered this very briefly. Of course it'd be worth it! Not only would it answer his current question, it would answer all the questions he's been wrestling with for over a month now. Besides, it'd be a new experience for Dante either way. Nero placed the last file in the last box, blissfully unaware of Dante's idea. 

"There we go." He said, exhaling loudly and with relief, slapping his hands onto his own thighs. "All done. Dante, I just wanna thank you so much for helping me, this would've taken me-" Nero turned to look over at him, to show him his expression of genuine gratitude, when rather than seeing Dante's face a couple feet away, he found his face to be right in front of his own, mere centimeters away! Before the young man had time to push him away, or really before he could react in any other way other than to have a look of extreme surprise, he felt a pressure against his lips. A very familiar pressure, actually; one that he's felt before, though initially his mind refused to acknowledge what the pressure against his lips was. His eyes still widened with paralyzing surprise, he looked at the face that was now touching his own, and when he saw that the eyes of the other face were closed, his mind could no longer deny what's happening. The old man is _kissing_ him. What the fuck? Why is he kissing him?! He felt himself starting to boil with anger, wanting to beat Dante into smithereens, but then….. Nero realized something. Ignoring the stubble that was irritatingly scratching at the young man's face, this actually wasn't all that bad. Dante, likely from his expansive experience, is actually a pretty good kisser. His lips were unexpectedly soft, not dry but yet not moist - and, something Kyrie never quite seemed to learn not to do, Dante didn't try to harshly push his lips up against him, causing Nero to have to move his head back to save his lips from being crushed by an awkward attempt to make the kiss seem more passionate. At this point, it didn't really even bother him anymore that a guy was kissing him, he was just surprised at how good a kisser Dante is! Without his conscious consent, his eyelids slowly lulled down until they were shut. It wouldn't be bad if he just enjoyed a good kiss for a second or two, right? So what if it's with another guy and is, well… kinda gay? Due to a lack of experience, Nero knows he isn't all that much better at kissing than Kyrie, but this way, by learning from the elder man, he'd be able to actually know how to give Kyrie a good kiss on their wedding day… Oh shit, Kyrie!

Nero immediately pulled himself away. Whether out of instinctive self-defense or out of anger, he socked Dante in the jaw with his devil bringer, before the older man had a chance to say or do anything else. Clearly, this caught Dante off guard, as he immediately cringed away in pain as he held his likely broken jaw in place. Nero stared at him for a second, his mouth agape and his eyes wide in shock, before he speedily stood up and exited the room, into the adjacent kitchen. Groaning, Dante felt it was probably safe to reopen his eyes a few seconds later, and upon seeing that Nero left, he set his jaw properly back in place so it could heal. Normally, the only time he receives such a hard blow is while he's fighting, where he's be able to predict it and numb the inevitable pain. This was different, he had no idea he was going to get punched, and so the pain was on full blast, even though his jaw healed back almost immediately after he set it. As he sat there, blinking and waiting for the pain to numb, he realized what he had just done. He just jeopardized their friendship. He didn't know if Nero would even want to speak to him now. But he did have a long-awaited answer to his question. Trish was right, he did have feelings for the damn kid, that was for certain. Why, he had no idea, but there was no denying the feelings he just felt. But just how much will this answer cost him? He just kissed an engaged man! Oh no… Does this mean he's not allowed to the wedding anymore? He had actually kind of been looking forward to being a groomsman. Nobody he's known has ever gotten married, let alone asked him to be their groomsman, and it's very unlikely he'd ever get this chance again…

With the pain in his jaw now a dull ache, he stood up from the couch and, very slowly, made his way towards the kitchen. He certainly didn't want to poke Nero, who was most certainly either angry or very upset with him, but he had to know if he was still invited or not, what with the wedding being so close and whatnot. Entering the kitchen, he wisely chose to stay standing in the doorway, where he could still see Nero but not be within hitting distance. The aforementioned man was sitting at the kitchen table, with his hand covering his eyes as if he's just committed an unmentionable shame upon himself, and his devil bringer in a fist on the table. Before he spoke, Dante stayed silent for a couple minutes, letting the young man hopefully calm down a bit.

"Nero, I-" Nero interrupted him before he could continue. "If you ever say anything, to anybody or anything, about what happened, I swear to any God that will listen, that I will hunt you down and make you pay." Nero threatened sternly without removing his hand from his eyes. Dante went silent, that certainly wasn't what he expected him to say. Why was he making it such a big deal? Dante, having forgotten in the midst of everything, forgot that the other reason he kissed Nero was to find out if he'd kiss him back, didn't yet realize that, technically, Nero did actually kiss him back.. "This includes Trish and Lady." Nero added. 

"Yeah yeah, I understand." He said softly, in hopes of not further angering him. No need to make a bad situation worse, after all. "I'm, uh.. I'm going to leave, but I just wanted to know if I was still allowed to go to the wedding.." A few silent minutes passed by, and Dante almost left in those minutes, figuring Nero's silence meant no. But before he could leave, he was stopped by Nero's voice.

"Yes, you can." He told him, uncurling his devil bringer's fist finally. "You can still be a groomsman too." Nero added a few moments later.

"Thank you." Dante said before he quickly left the room. No point in sticking around here now. As he left headquarters, he hoped that the last ferry back to the mainland hadn't already left, otherwise he's gonna be stuck sleeping on a bench tonight… For now, he decided to ignore all his thoughts, and most of his feelings too. He didn't even think about what he just did to Nero. He figured he'll deal with his life and emotions in the morning, when he's not dead tired and can think clearly again.


	18. The Bachelor Party

Unluckily for Dante, the ferry had indeed already made its last trip for the night. This forced him to take refuge on a nearby park bench for the rest of the night, until he would be able to catch the first trip in the morning. Theoretically, he could go back to headquarters and spend the night there, but that'd risk him running into Nero. Wisely, he decided getting a sore back from sleeping on a bench was better than leaving in a full body cast. The old wooden bench was very hard and stiff, but, it served its purpose of being more comfortable than lying on the cold ground. The next morning, though, he was rudely awoken by the rising sun's light assaulting his eyes. Using his phone to check what time it was beforehand, he decided to take his time getting up - since the ferry still wouldn't be there for another fifteen minutes anyways - and noticed some of the townsfolk had been watching him as they too waited for the ferry. They quickly averted their eyes once they were spotted, but it was still a creepy feeling knowing he had been watched for who-knows-how-long. Sure, he's the son of the demon they worship, he got that, and so Dante was tolerant of the usual stares and gawking, but watching him sleep? That's going a bit too far, even though he was sleeping in public..

That was two weeks ago; it is now September 22nd. Dante had not gone back to Fortuna since then. Instead, he tried to go back to living his normal life. You know, slaying demons and devils, hitting on pretty women, eating pizza all day and taking naps between jobs, the usual. But he just couldn't return to how things used to be, at least not completely. Ever since that night, he hasn't been able to get the damn kid or that kiss out of his head. Dante always laughed at those sappy romantic movies where the girl kisses a guy and suddenly she can't think of anybody but him, even if she barely knew the guy. But, it really was true. Though he wouldn't say he's in love like in the movies per say, the feeling of being attracted to somebody for more than one night was new to him, and it was driving him crazy. Sure, Nero had been on his mind often before, but ever since the kiss.. It's like his brain was on overdrive. He honestly hated it. He didn't like how, in the middle of fighting, his mind would suddenly question how firm Nero's butt is. Or how his downtime is now pretty much devoted - not by his own will, but because his mind demands he do so - to analyzing the young man and the kiss. But imagining Nero, going over all his features, thinking of his soft skin, his nice ass, his beautiful eyes, and his countless other attractive features… That in itself wasn't a bad thing. When his mind wasn't drifting to him, it instead went to reliving their kiss. That really was some kiss… It was simply perfect. Well, probably not perfect, but the rush, the excitement, the many new feelings the old man never experienced before then all hitting him at once.. it made it feel just so incredible. It was actually during one of his moments of reliving this memory that he realized _why_ the kiss was so perfect, _why_ he felt these different emotions. It was because Nero had kissed back. Though only for a couple seconds before Nero socked him in the face, it was enough. In the heat of the moment, Dante had forgotten that, in kissing him, he wanted to answer two questions that he had; one, if he'd feel anything special, and two, if Nero would reject him. Though he did punch Dante, he did accept the kiss in the end, and that spoke louder than words(or punches) could. 

Due to Nero constantly invading his mind, he took to trying to distract himself as often as he could, by reading magazines, watching television, and so forth. These things wouldn't stop the thoughts from randomly creeping back in, but it kept him from constantly thinking about him. Which, like he said, wasn't a bad thing by itself, but the, uh.. _effect_ that said thoughts had on his body were not always appropriate. Considering that at least one of the two girls will pass through his shop up to a few times a day every day, he didn't want them to catch him in an awkward position, especially since he hadn't told them about what had happened. Dante had abided by Nero's threat and had not told another living soul about that night, not even Trish or Lady. Though he knew Nero would almost certainly never find out if he did tell them, there was still always the chance that word would get around and he'd find out. That was a risk Dante was not yet ready to take. Though, it wouldn't really matter if he told anybody or not. What difference would it make? Nero was still going to get married either way.

Speaking of marriage, today is Nero's bachelor's party, and tomorrow, of course, is the big day. When Dante had spoken to Jack, before Nero had made him stay and help him with filing, him and Jack discussed some bachelor party ideas. Him and Willow had come up with a few ideas, but they wanted Dante's input. Eventually, they decided that going to this new bar that had opened up off of the island, but close to the docks, would be a good idea. This bar in particular was quite family friendly; it had fussball, a pool table, darts, karaoke, a nice selection of food and drinks, and so on. It would be a much more casual than the stereotypical bachelor's party, more like them just hanging out for one last night of freedom, since Nero is such a prude. Dante was supposed to meet them at the bar at 7pm, however, with what had happened, Dante wasn't sure if he was still allowed or if it'd even be appropriate for him to go. At first, he had decided he wouldn't go to the bachelor party, but would still go to the wedding. He would just make up some excuse about having a last minute mission if anybody questioned why he wasn't there. But alas, on the day of the bachelor party, he received a text from Nero, asking him if he was going to go or not. It was several hours before 7pm, way too soon to say he had an unexpected mission and couldn't make it, and he didn't want to lie to him, so Dante told him the truth; he told Nero he didn't think it'd be best if he went. Surprisingly, Nero texted him back, telling him that was nonsense and that Jack and Willow will be disappointed if he didn't at least make an appearance. He didn't say that he himself would be disappointed, but, Dante was hoping he just didn't want to admit it. 

Which is why Dante now found himself sitting in a round booth, in the bar they had decided they'd go to. He had gotten here a few minutes early due to the unexpectedly light traffic and already ordered himself a few shots of whiskey. He was going to need the liquor to make it through tonight, after all. He noticed that the bar was quite impressive in size, for a bar at least. Not to mention it was quite lively, with a good number of patrons and lots of laughter in the air. It was nothing like the usual depressing, lowlife bars that Dante frequents in Capulet City. Like Jack had told him before, there was also plenty of entertainment. The karaoke didn't start for another half hour, but there were many other things to do in the meantime. About ten minutes after his arrival, and three shots later, Dante heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, look who it is!" Jack shouted as he made his way to the booth Dante was in. Willow and Nero followed idly behind him, but were engaged in a conversation with each other. Dante greeted Jack with a friendly smile and a casual wave. "Glad you were able to make it." He told him as he sat in the booth, immediately scooting to the side so the other two had room to sit as well.

"How could I not? It's his last night of being a free man." Dante joked. As Nero sat beside Jack, followed by Willow, who sat beside Nero, their conversation became apparent. 

"I'm telling you Nero, you need to start saving up if you're wanting to commit to raising this baby with her." Willow warned him.

"We'll be fine. My paycheck pays the bills, and she got herself a job to start buying some of the baby stuff, until she's unable to work anymore." Nero sighed. Clearly, he and Willow had been discussing this for a while now, and Nero no longer wanted to continue the conversation.

"If she's already almost two months along, that means you have seven months before the baby is born. She'll only be able to work for a few more months. What're you going to do if the money she makes isn't enough?" Willow questioned, though Nero just tiredly stared at him, waiting for him to answer his own question like he figures Willow will do. "You'll be shit outta luck. The money you make won't be enough to pay for the things the child will need for the next 18 years."

"Then I'll get a second job." 

"When? You don't have time for another job!" Exhaling deeply, Nero responded.

"I don't know, I'll deal with it then. Maybe the Order will pity me and give me a raise." He said hopefully. Jack scoffed at this.

"Good luck, they didn't even give Richard a raise after his wife died in that accident, leaving him to raise their new son by himself." 

"Whoa, Dante!" Jack said, causing the other two men to drop their serious conversation and look at the man in red. "You're already three shots in?"

"Four, actually." Dante said before downing his fourth, and final, shot that he had been holding in his hand. He noticed that, while Nero was looking in his general direction, he wasn't actually looking at his face like the other two were.

"Geez, we're gonna have to work hard to catch up then." Willow stood up out of the booth, then turned to the other. "I'm gonna go get us some drinks. Dante, you just want some more shots of whiskey or do you want something different?"

"Whiskey's fine."

"Jack?"

"I'll take some tequila." 

"And I'll get Nero a glass of milk." Willow teased, flashing a disgruntled Nero a smirk before he left the table, heading towards the bar.

"You know, it's okay to drink a little bit of alcohol. Just don't drink what Dante drinks." Jack tried to convince him, which made Dante smirk.

"No, I'm fine." Nero insisted, though he still had his arms crossed from Willow's comment. He had learned his lesson to not drink alcohol the last time they were at a bar. A 'ding' sound came from Jack's pocket as Nero spoke, signaling that he had gotten a text message. As he grabbed out his phone, Jack shook his head and snickered at Nero for being such a lightweight. 

"Oh! Kyle wants a picture of the man of the night!" Jack told him, referring to Nero. He pulled his phone up to his own face, preparing to take a picture of Nero. Very quickly though, Nero held up his hands to cover his face, ruining Jack's shot at the last moment.

"No! No pictures!" He demanded as he raised his arms.

"Nonsense!" Jack told him, then scooted closer to him, wrapping his free arm around Nero's shoulders as he held his phone out with his other hand. Nero had removed his hands from his face, deciding instead to cross his arms and irritatedly look away from the camera. "Please Nero, just one little smile?" Jack begged him, looking over him. A few moments later, Nero closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath, before reopening them, looking at the camera, and smiling. Jack quickly took up this likely fading opportunity, smiling at the camera too as he snapped a picture of them both.

"Now see, was that really so bad, Mr. Angsty Teenager?" Jack asked him as he removed his arm from Nero and scooted away from him, reviewing the picture on his phone that they just took. Nero's smile had been replaced with an irritated frown immediately after the picture was taken. 

"I just don't like taking pictures, alright?" Nero defended. 

"Yeah yeah." Jack waved him off as he presumably sent the picture to Kyle. At just about that time, Willow came back with a tray of alcohol. He placed the tray down onto the table before distributing the glasses to their owners.

"Alright, four more shots of whiskey.." He placed the shots in front of Dante, whom gladly grabbed up one of the glasses. "One Bloody Mary for me.." Grabbing up a reddish orange drink from the tray, he placed the glass in front of his empty seat. "Four shots of tequila," Though, Jack had already taken possession of the glasses before Willow could give them to him, causing Willow to roll his eyes at him upon noticing the empty space on the tray, where the shots were once at. "and for Nero, a nice glass of 2% milk." All that was left on the tray was a single glass of cream-looking liquid, which Nero visibly inspected briefly before looking at Willow with an eyebrow raised, whom responded by smiling broadly at the teenager. Jack accidentally snorted, but then quickly raised a hand up to his mouth, using his fingers to cover his mouth and the palm of his hand to rest his chin on, effectively stopping him from chuckling at Nero's expense. He had heard Willow say he was going to get him milk, but he didn't actually think the bar would have any. Luckily for Jack, Nero did not seem to notice, and so Jack was able to continue to live without a bruise on his arm from a certain somebody punching him. Willow, who had noticed, then grabbed this glass of milk, placed it in front of the young man, and sat back into his seat. Dante, meanwhile, had been watching the scene before him with a wide smirk. The young man's tenacity towards avoiding alcohol was a bit comical, but then again, after seeing Nero drunk, he couldn't really blame him for staying away from liquor… the kid becomes a complete mess when inebriated.

"So tomorrow's the big day, huh?" Jack said to Nero after downing his first shot. He had used the same hand that was previously under his chin to grab the glass. 

"Sure is." Nero said as he idly poked at his glass of milk, causing the liquid inside to ripple. He stopped messing with the drink and looked over at Jack, smiling at him a bit to physically show his excitement.

"Man, I never thought I'd see the day…." Jack happily smiled at him, but soon afterwards his smile fell and he looked at the empty shot in his hand with a depressed look. "I think I might cry." He said a few moments later, sniffling to exaggerate his statement.

"I'm just getting married, it's not like I'm moving away." Nero chuckled lightly at Jack's irrational behavior.

"Married?" Jack questioned, looking up at him in confusion, an eyebrow raised until had a moment of realization. "Oh, I didn't mean that." Nero then returned Jack's confused expression with his own look of bewilderment. "I meant I never thought I'd see the day that you'd lose your V card!" He excitedly hugged Nero, who now returned to looking irritated, but not an angry irritated. More like a 'I should've expected this shit' kind of irritated. He did not return Jack's hug. "Aren't you excited?" Jack asked, looking at the man he was hugging.

"Uhh…" Nero questioned to himself whether he should even acknowledge the question, but Willow intervened for him.

"How can he be excited when he doesn't know what he's doing?" Willow teased him, smirking as he did so before taking a swing of his Bloody Mary. Nero simply huffed at his remark and tightly crossed his arms across his chest, knowing that, from personal experience, any kind of verbal response to an embarrassing statement will only make things worse for him. "Dante, why don't you share some of your expertise with him?" Willow smirked.

"Um…" Now it was Dante's turn to question how, or if, he should answer this question. Visibly, you could tell he was caught off guard and didn't initially know how to respond. Jack and Willow found this to be a bit odd, since, in the past, Dante would practically jump onto any opportunity to embarrass the young man. Nero, on the other hand, had replaced his annoyed appearance with a scornful look towards Dante - though he still did not look at his actual face, but rather at his general direction. He wasn't going to voice his objections to Willow's proposal for the time being, so long as Dante heeded his nonverbal threat. 

Dante observed Nero's hateful expression, but, not to be intimidated by a 19 year old kid, determined he could safely say just enough to cause Nero to get that cute shade of pink onto his cheeks, but that going beyond that wasn't a very good idea. "Well… first off," He began, looking back over at Nero since his eyes had wandered away while he was deciding, even though the younger still wouldn't look him in the eye. Just those three beginning words were enough to make Nero's eyebrows furrow just a bit more, intensifying his angry facial features. This only encouraged Dante though, who wore a taunting smirk on his face. "You can't just dive on in. You gotta take things nice and slow, be gentle. Well, of course, that's assuming she doesn't like the fast life." The contempt on Nero's face only grew the more he spoke. "If she does, then have at it! But if she's a bit crazy, make sure you set some boundaries, some girls can get a bit too freaky." He paused, looking away from him as he downed one of his shots. "Now, when you're actually going in for the kill, don't go too fast, new players to the game sometimes miss the sweet spot and nothin' kills the mood faster than-" "That's _enough_." Nero interrupted sternly. Though Jack and Willow were laughing it up, Dante did not laugh; he didn't even have a smirk anymore. He could tell from the anger boiling within the smaller man beside him, as evident in the look in his eyes as he stared down the older man, that he went too far. By his standards, he hadn't gone anywhere near too far, but considering Nero's irritation towards all things sexual and his apparent newfound contempt for Dante, he should've figured Nero's fuse would be shorter than normal. 

"I couldn't of said it better myself." Willow complimented, oblivious to the impending doom as his and Jack's laughter subsided moments later. "I'm gonna go get us some food." He glanced over at Nero, who had immediately ditched his hostile appearance for a smile to Willow, not wanting him to think anything was wrong as he nodded encouragingly at him. "I wanted to get some buffalo wings while I got our drinks, but I only have two hands." He continued as he stood up from the table.

"Sweet! I'm coming with you, the reviews for this place said they have some kickass pies!" Jack said enthusiastically. Nero, who was blocking his path out of the booth, stood up and out of the booth so that Jack could leave. And Jack did just that, leaving the two men behind, alone. Once they were out of his sight, Nero sat back down, his smile vanishing as he did so. Though, his previous smile was soon replaced with a frown and a glare directed at the empty void in front of himself. Dante could almost see the fury slowly rising within him. In the past, he's said other, more sexually implicate things than what he just said, without truly angering the kid. But he knew that wasn't really why he was upset, what he said was just the final straw for him. He also knew Nero wouldn't actually say anything to him until he was beyond pissed off, and with them being alone, it was only a matter of time before this ticking time bomb exploded. But maybe he could diffuse the wires before the explosion? It was risky, but if he's going to get yelled at sooner or later, might as well make it sooner and get it over with… 

"Look, Nero, I know what I did was wrong, but, I mean, it doesn't have to be a big deal." He said in a quieter tone than usual, so that other people would not overhear them. Not for his sake, but for Nero's. Said man, however, sat there in silence, like a damn little kid giving him the silent treatment. So, after a small sigh, Dante continued. "Are you ever going to be able to at least look at me again?" Dante questioned. For a moment or two, it seemed like Nero wouldn't respond to that either, but surprisingly, he did indeed turn his head to look Dante in the eyes. All the while, his wrathful expression never wavered. "Well, that's something at least.." Dante muttered, looking away briefly as he thought over his next words. "It was just a kiss. Nothing major. And it's alright if you enjoyed it, there's nothing wrong with that." Nero scoffed loudly at this and rolled his eyes, causing Dante to look back over at him. 

"Enjoy it? Why in the hell would I enjoy kissing _you_?" He said in a condescending tone.

"Well, I am an experienced kisser, to say the least, so-" "Yeah? And you think that just because you're good at kissing that I should just fall to your feet, like everyone else?" This left Dante for a brief loss of words, mostly because he had been interrupted mid-sentence though.

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

"You know damn well what I mean! Why would I ever like kissing somebody like _you_?" He paused to add emphasis to his rhetorical question. "You've lived most of your life as a womanizer who jumps from bed to bed each night, like some kind of insatiable mutt, constantly on the hunt for another victim! You've got no standards or morals, as long as it's breathing you'll probably fuck it!" He scoffed in disgust, looking away from him as he did so. "I'm sure you know every stripper and prostitute within a 50 mile radius of your shop _really_ well! Even if I did like guys, why the hell would I go after a man whore who's slept with everybody who knows his name? There's nothing special in being with somebody when everybody else has already had a taste of them!" Nero glanced over at Dante's numerous empty shot glasses. "You're also clearly an alcoholic to be able to handle that much liquor, you probably even drink every night, and who the hell wants to be with somebody who constantly smells like alcohol? I wouldn't doubt it if every damn nasty, scum bar in Capulet City knew your name and favorite drink! And you're just so goddamn egotistical!" Now using his arms and hands as he talked, and occasionally slamming the table with his fist to further symbolize his anger at him, he continued his beratement. "What're you going to do when you're old and you're looks and charm are gone, huh? Survive off of that terrible personality of yours?" He scoffed again in a mocking way. "Speaking of age, you're thirteen years older than me! Did you seriously think trying to take advantage of an engaged nineteen year old would ever work out for you? You're just a damn old pervert, that's what you are and that's all you'll ever be!" His rant over, Nero had his fists clenched on the tabletop, but apparently resisted against using them on anything. He looked daggers at the stunned older man, daring him to say even one word, but before neither he nor Dante could further say anything, Jack and Willow came walking back to the table. Nero did his absolute best to hide his anger with a convincing smile as the two came back, again, not wanting them to know anything was off with them. In Willow's hand was a tray full of different food items, including buffalo wings, chicken tenders, and fries. In Jack's hand was a single plate with one slice of cherry cheesecake on it, which Jack was already quite happily munching on. 

"Hey, we're back." Willow greeted, failing to notice anything out of the ordinary, despite Dante's still stunned facial expression towards Nero. "Jack wants to go shoot some pool while we eat, is that alright?" He questioned.

"Yeah yeah, that's fine." Nero said calmly, though he hurriedly got out of the booth and the three began their way to the nearest empty pool table. A few moments later, Willow, noticing that Dante was not following them after looking over at Nero and Jack, stopped and turned back towards him. The other two did the same as him shortly after.

"Hey, aren't you coming?" Willow shouted, since they were still close enough to be easily heard without having to walk back. Dante, who had been previously looking down at the table, jerked his head up in response to being unexpectedly called.

"Huh? Oh, no, I'm good. I'll just stay here and save our booth." He smiled briefly to further show that he was alright with staying behind. It was a good excuse, the bar was beginning to fill up as the night went on, and they'd quickly lose their spot and their drinks if he were to join them. Willow just shrugged at him.

"Suit yourself, just come on over whenever you feel like it." He offered before turning away again, continuing his path to a pool table. Jack too turned back around and followed Willow, but Nero didn't immediately do so. As soon as Willow had turned away from him, Nero saw that Dante had resumed looking down at his last glass of whiskey he held in his hand, swirling around its contents absentmindedly. His bangs covered most of his face, but Dante's frown was still evident. Had he actually hurt the old man's feelings? He didn't even know that was possible, the man was practically indestructible, both emotionally and physically. He had gotten so caught up in being angry that he didn't even consider how his words might affect Dante. Actually, now that he could calmly think, he wasn't really sure why he was so upset with him. Sure, the man had kissed him and that was awkward, perhaps even a bit upsetting for Nero, but that was two weeks ago. Surely that wasn't the reason why he went on a rampage of insults on him. A lot of what he said wasn't even how he really felt, he was just so angry with Dante for some reason that he just started spewing any kind of offensive words at him that he could think of. Turning his back to him so that he could rejoin the others, his guilt over the things he said slowly began to consume him.

Rather than doing the sensible thing and simply apologizing to him, Nero chose to try and ignore his guilt by enjoying playing some pool with Jack and Willow over the next fifteen minutes. But, despite his best efforts, he found himself constantly looking over towards their booth, at Dante. He was hoping that he would eventually see the man walking towards them, having bounced back from Nero's harsh words and ready to play a game of pool. But he never did. Instead, he only saw him finish off his remaining shot of whiskey as he otherwise idly sat in the booth. Nero's concerned glances didn't go unnoticed.

"What's going on with him? I thought he liked playing pool?" Jack questioned, having noticed Nero looking at Dante and deciding to look over at him as well. Willow was too busy lining up his shot to pay any attention to their conversation.

"I don't know." Nero quietly lied. Sighing deeply, he leaned his pool stick up against the pool table. "I'll go see if he wants to join us now or not." He decided. Hesitantly, he began walking back to the booth. He figured the only way to alleviate some of this guilt would be to nicely talk to him, so he might as well do it now rather than continuing to let his guilt eat at him.. Approaching the booth, he got no visible response from the other man, not even when he had reached the table and was standing in front of him. "Hey, um… Dante?" Nero spoke to get Dante's attention.

Snapping out of his haze upon realizing there was somebody next to him, Dante looked up at the younger man. "Hmm?" He hummed in response. He looked normal, but at the same time, he felt oddly distant, a very odd feeling from the normally outgoing character.

"I'd like it if you could join us." He found it difficult to maintain eye contact with him. Not because he's still angry, but because he's nervous, and because he's embarrassed over what he said to him. There were a couple moments of blank staring from Dante towards Nero as he watched Nero struggle with his ever so slightly apparent anxiety, but, to Nero's relief, Dante then smirked widely, causing him to smile back. 

"Can't say no to the star of the show, can I?" Dante asked rhetorically, with 'the show' being the bachelor party. As Dante stood up, Nero felt much better, he was at least acting normal again. But he could still feel a twinge of guilt that he figured won't be going away for a long, long time.. 

The rest of the night went much more splendidly, with laughs, smiles, and jokes coming from all four men as they talked and played the games that the bar had to offer. Jack, to nobody's surprise, as he had become quite drunk by the end of the night, even tried and failed miserably to sing songs at the karaoke stage. Luckily, most of the families from earlier had left once it started to get late, so they weren't kicked out because of Jack's constant tumbling around on stage and his drunken attempts at terrible singing - which, half of the time, the words coming out of his mouth weren't even comprehensible. Most of the people there actually enjoyed Jack's performance, he was a good source of entertainment for everybody who was still sober. Nero knew Jack was going to have a terrible hangover the next day, and would likely still be hungover at his wedding, but the laughs he got from Jack's drunken state made it worth it. Willow, being older than the two teenagers, had a few drinks himself, but was wise enough to not go beyond that. Of course, it takes quite a lot of alcohol just to get the eldest member of the party buzzed, let alone drunk, so Dante drank small amounts of his liquor throughout the night without actually taking notice of just how much he was drinking. Then there was Nero, who simply enjoyed a couple glasses of milk and of water. Though, he did eat his weight in bar food!

In the end, they were forced to leave at three in the morning, as that was when the bar closed. It was for the best, if they stayed out any longer, they weren't going to get enough sleep for tomorrow. After all, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to be dead tired throughout the ceremony. Jack, who had passed out at an empty booth an hour before, had to be carried back to headquarters by Dante. He was lucky that Dante was there to lug him around, if it had just been Willow and Nero, they would've just dumped him off at a nearby hotel, rather than trying to take his limp, heavy body back home. 

Making their way back to Fortuna via the ferry, they all checked out for the night in their adjoining rooms at headquarters. The almost immediate sounds of loud snoring meant everybody fell asleep practically as soon as they fell into their beds. However, Nero found it difficult for him to fall asleep, despite him being quite exhausted. Knowing that he was going to be married in under twelve hours, as the wedding is set for two o'clock tomorrow - or rather, later today - and knowing that he will also have a baby coming in seven months was quite nerve wracking for him. There was also the now questionable relationship between him and Dante that further clouded his thoughts, but he chose to ignore that issue, as he had more pressing concerns at hand.

Despite his young age, Nero has felt as though he's been an adult for years now, since Kyrie and Credo's parents, his adoptive parents, died and they were left to fend for themselves. Their childhood ended quite abruptly because of this, so he certainly wasn't lacking in experience with taking on adult responsibilities. But everything seemed to be happening all at once.. Marriage, babies, becoming responsible for more than just yourself. He expected that Kyrie would want him to take care of her once they were married, and he knew he could support her, so that wasn't an issue. But supporting her and a child was another story. Neither of them have any savings of their own, and him and Kyrie were already originally going to have to live paycheck-to-paycheck until he could get a big enough raise from the Order, which could take a couple years. 

Basically, he knew that, starting tomorrow, he's signing away the solitary, generally carefree life of doing whatever he wants for a life of having multiple jobs, working long hours, getting home late, having no sleep, and, most likely, having no free time. It's a big commitment for him, and though he didn't know how he was going to make everything work out, he wasn't going to give up. So long as he still had Kyrie by his side, so long as he can come home to her smiling face every day… it would all be more than worth it to him.


	19. The Big Day

As the older man moved his legs around underneath the sheets in the bed he was laying in, searching for a new comfortable position after spending practically the entire night in one spot, Dante inadvertently woke himself up. He was lying on his left side, with his left hand on his pillow, in front of his face, and the other hand was resting between the pillow and the bed. A shiny, rectangular object - which he recognized was his phone - sat on the bed in front of his body. He had left it there in order to ensure he'd hear the alarm he set on it for 10am. Clearly, since he woke up by his own accord and not due to the loud screeching that the alarm produces, it must be before 10am. Content with this conclusion, Dante rolled over onto his right side. A simple change, but very relieving. His left side had become sore after solely supporting the rest of his body for so long, and so after changing the burden of his weight onto his right side, he felt much better. Now comfortable enough to fall back to sleep, his eyes began to flutter shut as he began to relax his body once more.

That is, until he noticed the red light of the digital clock on the bedside table. His heart immediately going from a slow beat to racing fast, he rolled himself onto his back and sat up within a blink of an eye. Looking back over at the clock, he confirmed his terrible realization. It's 12pm, two hours past when he was supposed to go begin helping with the wedding. Groaning as he rubbed his face with both hands, using his knees to rest his elbows on, he figured he must've somehow slept through the damn alarm. He allowed his hands to fall down freely in front of him, since his elbows being on his knees meant that his hands would not go below how low his elbows are. He peered over at the other bed in the room, or rather, at Jack's bed, and found that he too was still here. Well, at least he won't be the only one showing up late…

Dante climbed out of his bed, revealing his body in all its naked glory. You see, he prefers to sleep naked, but previous to last night, he was always bunked with Nero for the night when he's here in Fortuna. Because Nero wakes up so early, and since Dante has a habit of sometimes kicking off his sheets, he figured he'd do the kid a favor and not completely expose his body to him. Though, he still tries to get away with sleeping with at least no shirt on. The man has to be at least a little bit comfortable to sleep, after all! But, since he was the one who carried Jack home, he got stuck with sharing a room with him. Which wasn't bad at all. Dante figured he'd probably be up before Jack, which meant he was able to sleep with as few clothes as he desired. Or, at least, if Jack did wake up first, he wouldn't go haywire if he did happen to see Dante naked. At any rate, Dante began gathering the clothes that he had discarded onto the floor before he had slipped into bed last night. He was going to have to wear a tuxedo later today anyways, so it didn't really matter if he put on clean clothes right now or not.

After properly clothing himself, as well as after putting his trusty weapons and phone into their respective places on his body, Dante approached Jack's still slumbering frame. Harshly, as he figured being gentle wouldn't wake him up, he grabbed and shook Jack's exposed shoulder.

"Hey, wake up, we're late." He told him, though he figured he wouldn't be heard anyways. Initially, Jack woke with a start.

"Wha… huh?" Jack mumbled as he tried to grasp reality again. Dante stepped back and waited until the other man was in the process of getting out of bed before he repeated himself.  
"We're late."

"Oh, shit… Well… has the ceremony started?" He questioned with a tired, hoarse voice as he wobbled out of bed, and upon finding them, slowly fumbled with his boots. He had not changed out of the clothes he had been wearing the night before; he didn't even take off his coat.

"No, not for another two hours."

"Pfft! We have plenty of time then." Jack scoffed as he put on his boots. Doing so was clearly a challenge for him, as he nearly fell over, both backwards and forwards, several times throughout the ordeal. Dante tried to help him hold himself steady, but Jack stubbornly refused by holding up a hand towards the man, preventing Dante from helping. "Besides, Nero always expects me to be late." Jack said as he stood up straight again, having finished putting on his boots. With Jack now facing him, Dante could see that he looked terrible. He had bags and dark circles beneath his eyes that matched his tired expression perfectly. He looked to be the posterchild of being hungover. 

"You gonna be okay to walk there?" Dante teased with a slight smirk and an eyebrow raised, though he was genuinely concerned that the young man wouldn't be able to handle properly walking right now. 

"Yeah….Yeah, I'll be fine." Jack said confidently. However, his self-questioning facial expression betrayed his air of confidence.

"Uh huh." Dante said in a questioning tone as he watched Jack sway ever so slightly as he stood. "Let's get goin' then." He said as he turned around and headed to the door. Jack, as he figured, initially hesitated, but did eventually follow behind the other man to the Grand Hall. Luckily for Jack's pulsating brain that was pleading with him to go back to bed, the walk from headquarters to the Grand Hall was just a ten minute walk. Even better, today was quite cloudy, which meant he didn't have to strain his eyes to keep out the sunlight! There were a couple times that, in his foggy state of mind, he accidentally ran into or tripped over an object in the road, but other than that, he made it to their destination safely. Located smack dab in the middle of Fortuna, the Grand Hall was the largest civilian building in Fortuna, used primarily for the Vicar's sermons, and as the name would suggest, it was also the grandest building. Well, it used to be, at least. That was before Dante crashed through its beautiful stain glass roof window, and before him and Nero proceeded to essentially destroy the interior in their fighting. That was months ago, but considering Fortuna is still recovering and rebuilding, there's no telling how the inside looks anymore. 

Upon entering through the building's doors, Dante was able to answer his own question and see just how much had been repaired. It was actually quite stunning; much of what had been broken had since been restored. Well, save for two things, the Sparda statue and part of the window that Dante broke. The replacement window pane was lying on the ground, propped up against the Sparda statue and awaiting installation onto the roof. Meanwhile, in its place on the roof was a tarp that was being used as a flimsy make-shift roof. The Sparda statue had its sword and hands repaired, but the face was still smashed to bits. Despite the slight disrepair of the building and statue, overall, it was still quite beautiful. The architecture, the hand-crafted decorative stained glass windows, the ornate designs throughout the building and even in the walls themselves, it all combined to make a rather stunning interior. Certainly nothing you would find in your average, bland, modern day building. The Hall was buzzing with activity - bridesmaids rushing along, putting up decorations, people running around, making sure everything was going perfectly - so it didn't take long before the two men were spied and questioned on why they were there. After revealing they were two of the groomsmen, they were hurriedly shoved into a nearby room without another word said.

"Sorry we're late." Jack cringed as they both entered the room, his head not appreciating having to focus on so many things going on at once. Dante closed the door behind himself in silence.

"No problem. Dante sleeps until noon and you're hungover, so I wasn't expecting you two to be here until right about now." Nero said nonchalantly as he was looking down at his tie, having been in the process of tying on his tie when they walked in. He had already fully dressed himself into his tuxedo, with his tie being the last thing that needs to be done. Nero's suit's jacket fit nicely on him, without there being a noticeable size difference between his human arm and his enlarged devil bringer. On his hands were black gloves that covered his otherwise exposed fingers. Nero usually wore a glove over his demonic hand anyways, mostly because he's accidentally hurt both himself and others with his surprisingly sharp 'talons', but for this occasion he wore gloves on both hands, so to not draw attention to his deformed arm. Meanwhile Willow, who was sitting down on a nearby stool, was still in the process of putting on his jacket, with his shoes still sitting beside him on the ground.

"Hey, I tried to be here on time." Dante jokingly defended.

"I'm sure you did." He said back in an equally teasing, sarcastic tone. Finishing tying his tie soon after, Nero looked up at them, and his eyes were immediately drawn to Jack. "You look like shit."

"I feel like shit." Jack responded groggily. After quickly examining Jack's appearance with his eyes, Nero spoke again.

"Hey, Willow," He turned to look at Willow, who in turn had stopped what he was doing and looked up at him. "Could you go get one of the bridesmaids?" 

"Sure." Willow said before quickly putting on his remaining shoe. 

"Jack, you go and sit down for now." And he gladly did so. "Dante, here's your tux." Grabbing one of the hangers off of a nearby door handle, he handed said hanger to Dante. On the hanger was a coat cover, and it could be assumed that his tuxedo was inside the coat cover. As Dante looked over the coat cover, and began to unzip it, Nero opened the door that use to have the hanger on its handle. "Get dressed in here." Stopping briefly to peer inside of the room, Dante saw that the room was a modestly sized closet/dressing area. 

"Don't lock me in, alright?" He joked before proceeding inside. 

"No promises." Nero retorted just before he closed the door on him. Over the next twenty or so minutes, Dante fitted himself into the suit. Unfortunately, he hadn't heeded Kyle's advice about not gaining anymore muscle, and so the clothes fit on him a bit too snuggly. Not that he intentionally decided to get bigger, it's just one of the side effects of his job. When lots of jobs are available, he gains, when there's a lack of activity, he loses. That's just how it is. Though the tuxedo was a bit tighter than it should be, he was still able to eventually get into everything and nothing actually looked noticeably too tight. There was one problem though. His jacket wouldn't close enough for him to button it up. After much trying and an equal amount of failing for several minutes, he gave up on wasting his time trying to get it to fit. He'll just have to leave the suit's jacket unbuttoned. Nero wouldn't care if his jacket was open, right? At least, he hoped he wouldn't. Exiting the dressing room, Dante saw that Jack was sitting down in the stool where Willow once sat, with one of the bridesmaids kneeling in front of him. With his eyes closed, she seemed to be applying some kind of makeup onto his eyes and eyelids to cover up the physical effects his hangover was having on his face. It was working pretty well too; he looked almost normal again.

"There." She announced, placing some sort of brush-looking object back into its case and into her purse that was hanging loosely off of her shoulder. Jack then opened his eyes and blinked several times, as if the feeling of makeup on his face felt funny. "Lucky for you, we're the same shade, so nobody will even know you got drunk off your ass last night." After observing her work on his face, she stood back up, satisfied she had done all she could do for him.

"Yeah, lucky me, I've always wondered what my shade was." Jack said sarcastically as he blinked.

"Oh hush, you big baby." She rolled her eyes before heading back out the door.

"Thanks cupcake, I don't know what we'd do without you." Willow smiled warmly at her, following her to the door. Ah, this must be Willow's long-time girlfriend. Makes sense that she would know Kyrie too.

"No problem, honeybun. Just make sure he doesn't rub his eyes before the wedding is over." She returned his smile as she exited out of the room. Nodding his confirmation to her, she then left completely as Willow closed the door.

"Honeybun? Cupcake?" Jack sneered.

"Yeah, you got a problem with our nicknames?" Willow said in a threatening, yet joking tone. 

"No, no problem at all, _honeybun_." Jack teased with a smirk. As the two men began to playfully fuss, Nero looked over at Dante and spied that he didn't have his jacket buttoned.

"Why isn't your jacket buttoned?" He questioned.

"Oh, I figured having it buttoned up would be too formal, and y'know, I'm not a formal person." Dante tried to bullshit up an excuse. With an eyebrow raised at him in suspicion, Nero obviously wasn’t buying it.

"It won't fit, will it?"

"Well, you see…"

" _Will it_?" Nero repeated more sternly. Sighing deeply, Dante came clean.

"No.." Scoffing at him and rolling his eyes, Nero came closer to him.

"Let me try. Sometimes it's easier to button up if somebody else is doing it." He said as he grabbed Dante's suit jacket and began trying to pull it together close enough to be buttoned. Dante allowed this, but found his ability to breathe severely hindered each time Nero tried to button it up, since the jacket wrapped too tightly around his chest. He did manage to get two of the lowest buttons buttoned together, but on the third, you could almost hear the material beginning to give way to the pressure.

"I don't think this is gonna work." Dante huffed as Nero continued his doomed mission, trying to close the jacket. Sighing in defeat moments later, Nero finally gave up and unbuttoned the two buttons he did manage to close, allowing Dante to breathe normally again. 

"Fine. I don't want to end up tearing it." He looked over Dante's jacket one last time, making sure there were no rips or tears in it now. "At least you have a tie on.." Nero muttered, noticing that Dante managed to put on his tie by himself this time. "Jack, you're up next." He called, pointing towards the dressing room as he looked at him.

"Aye aye, Captain." Jack joked with a salute before he stood up.

"And be careful with that makeup." He warned.

"I wouldn't want to mess it up, I look beautiful now!" Jack said as he pretended to fabulously flip his hair back with his hand. As Nero shook his head side to side in fake disappointment, Jack entered the dressing room. At least Jack was beginning to overcome his hangover and return to normal. Over the next hour, the crew worked feverishly. After Jack was all set in his suit, they left their room and joined the others in preparing for the ceremony and for the reception afterwards. Willow had been tasked with helping out in preparing and setting out the food, Jack was told to aid the bridesmaids in whatever they needed help with, and Dante was given the job of precisely cutting and arranging approximately a dozen bouquets that would be a mixture of red roses and white daisies. Nero told him that would be the job that fit him the best, considering the man liked red, but he didn't much like dealing with all the thorns and pain that tend come with roses.. 

Nero, of course, had the sole job of making sure Kyrie was happy and that everything was going smoothly for her. Kyrie never voiced any complaints and only had a few small requests for him, as expected, but the eagerness in her voice was enough to tell him if things were going as she hoped or not. He wasn't actually allowed to see her, as the groom is not supposed to see his bride until the ceremony, but he was able to talk to her through her dressing room door. He was told several times by the bridesmaids that passed through though that she looked absolutely gorgeous, but, in his opinion, she always looked beautiful anyways. Additionally, he was also told by quite a few guests that he was going to make a great husband for her. He was certain they didn't mean to sound surprised when they told him he'd be a good husband. He might have a less than great reputation in the Order, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be a good spouse!

\------------------------------------

The time is now 1:50pm, ten minutes before the ceremony is to start. By some miracle, everything had been done by now, despite the concern that they were going to run out of time. For the ceremony, the Grand Hall's pews were arranged so that there was a single, large gap between them, which formed a pathway from the entrance door to the Hall's stage. In this opening, there was a long, impossibly pure white carpet that also led from the entrance to the stage. For every pew that was exposed to this pathway, the exposed side had a bouquet of freshly cut red roses and daises standing eloquently on the pew, which beautifully outlined the pathway. At the beginning of the pathway, behind the first pews, there was a small cluster of different heighted lit candles. The Grand Hall was actually older than modern electricity, and as its unique structure would make any electrical installation a daunting task, the entire place was lit by candlelight or by fire instead. A terrible fire hazard for sure, but it also gave the building a romantic and endearing aura. There were decorations all about, none of which were over the top in design, but together, they made an already stunning place even better. With everything in place and the ceremony ready to begin, Nero fetched his groomsmen. 

"Jack, c'mon, we're about to start!" Nero urged him after finding Jack in the adjoining reception room, still hanging up photos of Nero and Kyrie when they were kids. He had already found Dante and Willow, who were waiting in the Grand Hall for Nero to get Jack, before they got onto the stage. 

"Aw, I'm sorry Nero, I got side tracked looking at all these photos." Jack absentmindedly responded as he looked at a photo in his hand. He smiled as he looked at the picture. "Just look at how cute you are in this photo!" He said before turning to Nero and flashing him the photo he was holding. In the photo was a much smaller, more boyish Nero, who was likely about seven or eight at the time, smiling widely at the camera with one of his baby teeth missing. "Aren't you just adorable in this?" Jack cooed. 

"Yeah yeah, c'mon, just hang it up and let's go!" Nero rushed him; normally, he would be a bit embarrassed looking at his silly childhood photos, but he had no time to be embarrassed right now. He's about to get married! Jack abided by his request and quickly hung up the photo on the wall he was standing beside, next to the other photos, before he followed Nero back into the Grand Hall. In an orderly line, they followed Nero up to the stage and were placed in their respective positions behind where Nero is to stand. It should be noted that the three bridesmaids where all already on stage and in their correct positions. The priest, a tired looking older man dawned in an attire similar to what the vicar wears, patiently waited for the ceremony to start as he held a book in front of himself. Dante, being the oldest, was positioned to be first in the line of men and was to be standing directly behind Nero. Conveniently, this also meant the view of Dante's informally open jacket was partially skewed by Willow and Jack. Speaking of whom, Willow was to stand beside Dante's left side, and the youngest of the three, Jack, stood beside Willow. 

"Are you sure you want to do this? There's still time to back out, ya know." Jack whispered to him as Nero was checking over them all, making sure there wasn't anything out of place with their suits or their position.

"No, I want to do this." Nero responded after a brief hesitation as he straightened out Jack's tie. The other two men watched as Nero did this. Willow, noticing his hesitation and lack of eye contact with Jack, was provoked to speak up next.

"There's no shame in admitting you've changed your mind."

"Trust me, I wouldn't have gone through all this trouble if I changed my mind." Nero said, chuckling lightly at their concern. Finished with Jack's tie, he looked over at Dante. "What about you? You got any encouraging words to say to me?" He said sarcastically. 

"Nope." Dante responded with a half smile. "So long as she makes you happy, that's all that matters, right?" He added, earning him a surprised yet grateful smile from the other.

"Yeah. And she does." He said in a warm tone with a small, happy smile on his face, pausing between his sentences. They looked at one another for another second in silence before Nero turned away, with his back facing Dante. He then began a short, whispered conversation with the priest who was to perform the marriage. Considering Fortuna worshipped Sparda, a devil, Dante found it odd that they still used a traditional Christian priest for marriage, even if his clothing did resemble the vicar's. Maybe they believed more than one god exists, and so it's not a big deal to be apart of one religion and be married under another? Eh, who cares. Dante never was one for questioning religions, especially not one that made his unholy father a god... 

Suddenly, everybody's attention, including Nero's, shifted to being focused at looking towards the Grand Hall's entrance, where the pathway began. There stood Kyrie, dawning a beautifully frilled dress that was a bit too white to be telling the truth. Her gown was long enough to where her feet were not visible, and a good foot more of the white material floated behind her. In her hands, she held a bouquet that was identical to the ones that lined her pathway. As she was still in the early stages, her pregnancy was not shown at all. Lucky for her, because otherwise that tight dress would be crushing any sort of protrusion on her belly. As Dante looked over her, he got a better understanding of why Nero was so smitten by her. Not that he didn't understand some of it before, mind you. Her beauty was breathtaking, considering her face bore no makeup. The smile that she wore gave anybody who gazed upon it a gentle, relaxed feeling. Her chestnut eyes nicely matched her smile, in that they looked so forgiving and naïve. Even the way she held herself made you feel nothing could go wrong with her around. 

But it was because she made others feel this way that Dante was not interested in her himself. It was because of this that Dante still felt there was something off about her. Nobody could be as perfect as she portrays herself. There is a dark side to every source of light, and she was no different. He wasn't saying she had malicious intent, no, not at all, he did believe she was as nice and naïve as you'd think. But that, hidden deep down, there was something flawed in this seemingly perfect woman. Knowing that she was pregnant, Dante knew at least one of her flaws; she was weak-willed - easily persuaded. Though, just having one flaw was exceedingly rare, and he was sure she had other hidden weaknesses. For Nero's sake, he hoped he was wrong. 

It was at this moment that the ceremonial piano music began, officially marking the beginning of the wedding. As everybody gazed at Kyrie and her flowing dress as she seemed to angelically float down the aisle, Dante couldn't help but also watch Nero out of the corner of his eye. His smile wide, his expression conveying the sense that he was looking at something he loved dearly, it was safe to say he still cared about her very much, despite what's happened. Dante accepted this, but didn't understand it. He himself would not want to stay with somebody who may cheat on him whenever he leaves town, let alone staying with a woman who's carrying another man's baby. But, maybe, he figured, this just made Nero a better man than him; because Nero wasn't willing to let one mistake ruin everything. He would be a good husband, but to be honest, Kyrie didn't deserve somebody as loyal as him. Now, Dante wasn't saying that Nero should leave her for him. No, even if the slim chance that Nero's into guys was true, Dante wouldn't deserve him either. Nero deserved somebody who was truly and impossibly perfect in every way. Though, despite the fact that he deserved better, the kid was clearly happy to be with her anyways, despite her flaws. 

Stepping onto the stage, Kyrie meet and stood in front of her fiancé at the alter. They exchanged excited smiles as they lovingly looked into one another's eyes. Allowing the bride and groom to gaze at each other for a few seconds prior to starting the ceremony, the priest took his time holding up and opening the book he had been idly holding before. Given the man's age and assumed experienced, he likely no longer needed his book to know the verses needed to perform a marriage. Nevertheless, having the book with him made him look more official and qualified to conduct a marriage ceremony. 

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of our God," The priest began. "and in the face of this company, to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony; which is an honorable estate, instituted of God, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt God and his Church. Which.." He continued on with the ceremony, but by this point, Dante had already zoned out. He couldn't help it. His mind was being flooded with the saddening realization that this would be his last time in Fortuna; his last time seeing Jack and Willow, and perhaps more importantly, his last time being around Nero. He hadn't thought much about how things would change after Nero's marriage, but, for no particular reason, it just now dawned on him that they will be taking their separate ways after this day. Dante could definitely continue to visit, continue to try and salvage their apparently broken friendship; but why? Nero will have a wife, and soon enough, a baby. He won't want to hang around friends, even if he did have the time in his busy life. 

Besides that, it would be too hard for the older man, seeing Nero start his new life with a new family. He did still have feelings for him, and continuing to hang around him, knowing he doesn't have a chance in hell at winning him over, would be difficult by itself. It'd be like dangling a juicy piece of steak in front of a hungry dog, just out of his reach, but still close enough to drive him insane. Dante wasn't going to put himself through that kind of torment. No, it's better this way anyways. Nero will live happily ever after with his new wife and child, and Dante, well.. he'll eventually be able to push the young man out of his head and continue what he's been doing since he was nineteen. Slaying demons, sleeping with strangers, drinking whiskey and eating pizza. That's how it's always been and that's how it'll be until the day he croaks. And Dante told himself he was fine with that. But still, it actually pained the man to think about the fact that he won't be able to see Nero anymore, won't be able to hear his voice, and won't have that comforting feeling that he gets when he's around him… It really did physically hurt. He suddenly heard Nero's name be spoken by the priest, effectively snapping the man away from his depressive thoughts as he refocused his attention on the matter at hand. Though he was no longer actively thinking about how he's going to forever leave behind this town and Nero, the pain still lingered as an ever-present reminder.

"Nero, will thou have this woman as thy wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Will thou love her, comfort her, honor her, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as you both shall live?" The priest spoke to Nero as he looked at him. Strangely, as the priest spoke, Dante noticed a change in Kyrie's demeanor. Her smile had faded a slight amount, and she now appeared to be a tad bit uneasy. She was probably nervous that she was going to mess up her upcoming lines. After all, it's a lot to remember when you're already under the pressure of being watched by a lot of people..

"I do." Nero responded confidently. Turning his attention to Kyrie, the priest spoke to her next. 

"Kyrie, will thou have this man as thy wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Will thou love him, comfort him, honor him, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as you both shall live?" 

"I-I do." Kyrie also said with an air of confidence, though she unintentionally stuttered. Nero and Kyrie then joined their right hands.

"Now, repeat after me." The priest spoke to Nero, whom nodded to him. "I, Nero, take thee, Kyrie, as my wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part." Having been focused on the older man, Nero was able to remember all that he was instructed to say, and loudly repeated the verse back to the priest without an issue. Shifting over to Kyrie, the priest spoke again. "Now you say, I Kyrie, take thee, Nero, as my wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part." After the priest finished speaking, Kyrie hesitated. She opened her mouth to speak, but with no words coming out; she looked away from Nero, her expression having gone from being previously happy and excited to confused as she desperately thought of what to say. It was as though she already forgotten her lines. "I, Kyrie, take thee Nero," the priest repeated more slowly to refresh her memory. She hesitated once more. It could be heard that some of the guests in the pews where whispering to one another during this second pause's silence. All six groomsmen and bridesmaids anxiously watched, unconsciously holding in their breaths as they wondered why Kyrie was having such a difficult time.

As she looked once more at the handsome man before her, observing his quickly fading smile and how he was nervously watching her, Kyrie's eyes began to fill with tears. "I… I can't." She whispered to Nero, her voice shaky and quiet. Unsure of what to say, the groom stood there silently for a couple seconds before finding his words again.

"Wha…what do you mean?" Nero whispered back, his tone being of shock and confusion. 

"I can't let you do this to yourself." Still whispering, her voice beginning to crack as she held back her tears. She looked absolutely heartbroken. 

"I… I don't understand." The soft, childlike tone Nero used was that of which Dante had never heard before. Most startlingly, there seemed to be a hint of fear in his voice. Nero, the temperamental ball of fury with a smart ass mouth, sounded _afraid_.

"I love you…" She briefly looked away from him, closing her eyes as she did in a last attempt to keep her tears from coming out. Looking at him again, her attempt had clearly failed as a tear began to run down her cheek. "I love you so much Nero," she reiterated. "but I can't let you pay for my mistake." 

"No, no, it wasn't a mistake!" He quickly said in a despairing, hushed tone. "I'll love this baby as much as I love you." He pleaded, tightly taking her hand into both of his hands, refusing to both physically and emotionally let her go. Kyrie smiled with a look of admiration as the tears began to come down more rapidly. 

"I know you would've." She paused as she placed her left hand ontop of Nero's hands. "And that's why I've been telling myself that- that us getting married will be good… for the both of us." Her teary voice began to make her unintentionally stutter. "But… I just… I just can't do this. I can't live with myself knowing that I m-made you throw away your life because of my s-stupid decisions." 

"I'm not throwing away my life, I want to be there for you! We can get through this, Kyrie. I promise!" Nero shamelessly begged. Tenderly, Kyrie removed her hands from his grip and instead wrapped her arms around him in a hug, though Nero was in too much shock to reciprocate the hug. Instead, he stared in front of himself at the spot Kyrie used to be standing in, his mouth slightly agape in horror.

"I'm so sorry, I should've done this sooner… I was hoping my guilt would go away by now… I never meant to do this to you." She ended their hug a few moments later by removing her arms from him. Warmly, in a motherly fashion, she placed a hand onto his cheek as she sadly smiled at him once more. "Please, Nero, find you somebody who will never hurt you. Somebody who makes you laugh." The corner of her smiling mouth began to twitch as she struggled to hold back her emotions. ''Somebody who deserves a man as wonderful as you." The last bit of her sentence was only barely audible, as her tears had finally overcome her ability to speak. Lifting up her dress so she would not trip, Kyrie dashed down the steps and down the aisle in a hurry as her cries echoed loudly in the large building. Though she was quickly out of sight, a door slam could be heard, indicating she had gone back into her dressing room. 

A few tense moments followed after as everybody, horrified at what they just witnessed, turned to look at Nero, unsure of what they should do next. The priest very slowly closed his book, his eyes wide with shock before he lowered his arms back down to his sides. He respectively adverted his eyes from the would-be groom, not wanting to further upset him with his staring. The bridesmaids suddenly rushed off of the alter and out of the room, just as quickly as the bride had, most likely to chase down Kyrie and try to make sense of what had just happened. Willow and Jack soon abandoned their positions behind Nero to instead surround him, quickly trying to comfort him by giving him words of encouragement. Their words seemed to fall on deaf ears though, as Nero only continued to blankly stare in front of himself, rather than acknowledging their presence. Dante remained standing behind Nero for a few more moments afterwards, his mouth open in shock, as he was still trying to process the events that just unfolded before him. Realizing Nero may fly off the handle in rage at any moment now, he joined the other two men in their attempts to help him. As he walked to Nero's side, he placed his hand on Nero's shoulder in consolation. This, for the first time, sparked a reaction from the young man, as he turned his head to look over at Dante. His eyes and expression looked so blank, so lifeless, so lost and confused. It was as if Dante was looking at a completely different person; somebody with no hopes, no dreams, and no motivation. Dante opened his mouth to speak, but was unable to find the right words. After closing his mouth and sighing, he tried again to speak to him.

"Nero… I'm… I'm so sorry about this." Despite his efforts, that was all he was able to muster up. He had never been placed in this situation before and was, understandably, at a loss for words. How are you supposed to tell somebody who's just had their heart broken by their childhood love that everything is going to be okay, when you have doubts yourself? Nero silently observed Dante's genuinely sorrowful expression, before he turned his gaze to looking down at the floor in front of him as he hung his head down, his expression never changing.

\------------------------------------

"Nero… I know you're hurting, but we need to leave now." Jack said softly. All four men were sitting on the steps to the alter, though the building had been empty for a while now. The three groomsmen had changed back into their normal clothes, but Nero still wore his black tuxedo suit. Speaking of Nero, he did not respond to Jack's request. In fact, he hadn't responded to anybody after the first time Dante spoke to him. He has not said anything and the only physical movement he has made was when he sat down on the steps a couple hours ago. He wasn't angry, hell, he wasn't even crying. All he did was expressionlessly stare at the empty space in front of him. He had completely shut down from the world around him.

"C'mon Nero, we've been here for three hours now. It's time to go home." Willow spoke as if he was speaking to a child who may not understand him. As he stood up from his place on the steps, the others soon stood up with him, but Nero made no effort to leave his spot. Gently, Willow placed his hand onto and around Nero's arm. He gradually pulled upwards on his arm, encouraging Nero to stand up. Slowly, Nero obliged by Willow's request and stood up. But he did not step forward or change his empty expression. It seems as though he has no desire to move by his own accord. With much guidance, the three of them were able to eventually get him back to headquarters - Nero's new home until things get sorted out. They had to make him walk by occasionally pulling on his arm, as Nero refused to move until being forced to, but they were still able to get him safely home before dusk. 

Allowing Nero to quietly rest in his room for the rest of the day, the trio hoped that the normally vibrant young man would start to bounce back by tomorrow morning. Sure, he wasn't going to be himself or even be okay by then, but he should start being responsive again by morning, even if just a little bit. This, however, did not happen. Tomorrow morning came and went, as did the evening and night, and several days later, Nero had not changed. He talked to nobody, responded to nobody, and did nothing. Luckily, he did still go to the bathroom on his own, but everything else had to be done for him. He had no real appetite, so food had to be made and brought to him, or else he wouldn't eat at all. Even though only a few bites, at most, would be eaten, they at least made it to where he had the opportunity to eat something. 

After the first day of having no success with him, Jack began waking Nero up in the morning and taking him into the headquarter's livingroom. There, he would sit him down on one of the couches and, just as an added measure to ensure he was comfortable, Jack would cover Nero's body with a blanket. He would do this every morning with the hopes that being around other people, rather than being alone in his room, would help him recover faster. Throughout the day, Willow, Jack, and Dante would take turns sitting with him. Just in case he did want to talk to somebody, they wanted to make sure one of them would be there for him. They didn't pressure him to speak; rather, they would simply sit and watch television with him, silently supporting him. As fruitless as this may seem, it did seem to help - Nero still would not talk to anybody, but he did watch the television screen whenever one of the three men would sit with him. Along with his extreme silence, he continued to show very little emotion. He didn't cry, smile, laugh, or do much of anything. Willow described it as a bad case of "numb depression," in that being left at the alter by Kyrie caused Nero to sink into a depression - but not the stereotypical, sorrowful depression that most people know of. Rather, as a coping mechanism, he is unconsciously numbing all his emotions in order to get through this stressful point in his life. Thankfully, Willow says that it's just that - a coping mechanism, and as time goes on, he will get better, and will eventually return to normal. But, there is still no telling how long his recovery may take. All they could do in the meantime is be there for him.

After five days of helping to care for and support Nero, Dante was forced to return to his shop. The longer he stayed in Fortuna, the more jobs he'd have waiting for him once he got back home, since he wasn't able to warn Trish or Lady that he was going to stay in Fortuna for longer than expected. Though he did want to stay and continue to help, Nero had yet to show any real signs of improvement, and for all he knew it may take months for him to get better. He felt guilty for leaving since the kid is so down, but, he has to be able to pay for his bills somehow. Before leaving, he told the other two to contact him if he's ever needed for any reason, or if Nero started getting better. Otherwise, he said, he will visit again whenever he's able to. 

\--------------------------------------  
.  
October 13th. It has now been almost three weeks since the day Kyrie left Nero, and two weeks since Dante last came to Fortuna. In those two weeks, Dante had not heard anything from or about Nero. He assumed this meant nothing had yet changed with him. Because of this, he wasn't planning on returning to Fortuna for another week or two, when he can afford, both figuratively and literally, to leave the girls in charge of the shop for a couple days. He didn't like that there was such a significant time gap between his visits, considering Nero needed help now more than ever, but he didn't have much of another choice. Lady and Trish can only take over for him so many times, and as of late, he's been having to leave the shop in their hands a lot. Though, that being said, if the kid needed him, he'd be there in a heartbeat and Lady and Trish would just have to deal with it.

It was approximately three o'clock on a rather uneventful Thursday, and, as it does normally throughout the day, the desk's phone began to ring. Begrudgingly, Dante took off the magazine that had once been placed on his face in an attempt to take a quick nap as he comfortably sat at a tilted angle in his chair. Swinging his feet off from their perch on his desk, a thud could be heard immediately after as the chair Dante sat in returned to standing on all four of its legs. He lifted the phone up and answered the call in the same way he answers them all.

"Devil May Cry?" He spoke into the receiver as he idly rubbed an eye with his other hand.

"Dante! Dante, we need you to come down here as soon as you can!" Jack's panicked voice told him. Visibly confused, he opened his mouth to speak, but before the man in red had a chance to ask why he was needed, Jack answered his question. "Nero's gone!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason why it's said that Kyrie was wearing a dress that was "a bit too white to be telling the truth" is because, traditionally, at least in the USA, a bride wears a white dress to symbolize her purity from sexual acts. Brides these days will usually still wear white regardless of whether they're virgins or not, but, nevertheless, white is supposed to symbolize their purity.
> 
> I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I am happy with it, but at the same time, I'm unsure if I was able to convey the emotions being felt strongly enough. I actually went to my first ever wedding a couple weeks ago, and while I was admiring the beauty and romantic atmosphere, I realized how much it would hurt to have your significant other break off the wedding WHILE it's being performed and how badly this would affect Nero. I also realized how Dante would feel too, having to watch somebody you may have feelings for marry the girl of their dreams as your heart silently breaks. I tried very hard to properly convey these emotions, so I hope it paid off! Thank you for reading!


	20. Lost and Found

_"Nero's gone!"_ Those two, simple words rang through Dante's head like a bullet being fired off. Gone? They're on an island, where on earth could he possibly go?

"…Gone? What do you mean?" Dante voiced his previously inner questions.

"He's just gone! We've checked everywhere, we even asked Kyrie if she knew where he went, but nothing!" As apparent in how his voice was gradually becoming more high pitched, Jack seemed to be making himself panic more as he continued speaking.

"Alright, alright, just calm down. Did you ask the ferryman if he's seen him? That's the only way into Fortuna, right?" Dante remained calm and composed; after all, there's no point in both of them freaking out.

"Yeah, we did…" Jack sobbed quietly. "He didn't see him leave."

"Then he must still be there, somewhere."

"I know, I know…" A small silence where Jack was heavily, but slowly, breathing in and out ensued afterward, which seemed to be Jack attempting to relax himself. This seemed to work briefly, before a new flood of questions entered his mind. "But what if he's in trouble? Or is lost? Or is hurt?! What if he was kidnapped!" His voice returned to its panicked state.

"Okay, just listen," Dante paused to make sure he had Jack's attention. He assumed he did, as Jack's whimpers died down when he spoke. "I'm going to head over there right now. Alright?" Waiting until he heard Jack weep a faint 'okay,' he continued speaking. "But it's gonna take me a little while to get there. Until I do, just keep looking for him." Standing up from his chair, Dante began collecting his weapons as he held the phone to his ear using his shoulder. "Have you tried using Aglæca to sniff him out?"

"No… It's too risky to use him. The captain doesn't want anybody else knowing about him until the board members approve his plan.."

"His plan? I thought that would've been dealt with by now." Dante responded, a bit surprised since Nero told him about the captain's plan to allow sanctuary to peaceful demons a while back.

"Almost, it's in the approval process, but it's not in effect yet…" Though brief, this side conversation distracted Jack enough from the situation to be able to gain back some of his composure. Nevertheless, there was still a sad, helpless undertone to his voice.

"That's too bad, this would be easier with his help…" Dante paused, sighing a heavy sigh as he did so. "I'll be there as soon as I can. Just keep looking for him, maybe he'll turn up before I get there." After getting an affirmative response from Jack, Dante hung up. Without wasting another moment, he left the shop in a rush and proceeded to his preferred vehicle of choice - his motorcycle, that is.

The trip to Fortuna was terrible, to say the least. The already long trip was made longer by the traffic that was almost everywhere he went, as if the other people knew he would be in hurry at this particular time on specifically this day. He dodged most if it by illegally driving through the alleyways and taking the lesser known backways, something he learned how to safely do early in his devil hunting career. After all, when he gets an emergency call from someone in distress, taking the ten extra minutes to legally sit in traffic could mean the death of innocent people. Often the Capulet City police will turn a blind eye to his illegal behavior, since they know very well that Dante will only do this whenever he absolutely needs to. In fact, it seems like the police departments from the surrounding areas also know to ignore him now, as he passed several occupied police vehicles on his way to Fortuna and not even one flashed their lights at him.

Nevertheless, he did eventually make it to Sparda's city. Albeit later than he anticipated, but at least he was there now. While on the ferry ride, he called both Trish and Willow. Trish to inform her that the shop was unattended, much to her distain, and Willow to get more information on the situation. Just as he figured, Willow was treating Nero's disappearance in a much more serious, less panicked manner than Jack, and was able to coherently tell Dante everything he knew. Willow told him that yesterday, for the first time since before the wedding day, Nero had been doing well. He was starting to talk again, move by his own accord, and had even made and ate his own meals. Nobody informed Dante though, figuring there's no point in saying he's all better after only one day of improvement. He could easily relapse back into his numb depression and all their hopes will be dashed. Then, when Jack went to make sure Nero was well this morning, as he has done every morning since that terrible day, he found Nero's bed to be disheveled and empty. Almost as if the occupant had suddenly sprang out of bed and left, without bothering to tidy up his sleeping quarters. A search of the room revealed he had left behind both Red Queen and Blue Rose, meaning that, where ever he went, he had no weapons. This was unheard of from him. He does often leave without Red Queen, as she can be a bit bulky and intimidating to civilians, but he never leaves behind his trusty gun.

That was about all they knew right now, unfortunately. He'd been gone since before dawn and is weaponless. They spent many hours searching for him, with no luck, before they resorted to calling Dante. Despite searching practically every inch of the town, the woods surrounding the town, and everywhere else near town, there was no hint of where Nero may be. Nobody had seen him, nobody knew where he could've gone, nothing. Like Jack had said to him earlier, they had even questioned Kyrie, suspicious he may have spoken to her in an attempt to win her over again before leaving. But she hadn't seen him either. It was as if he had just disappeared without a trace.

As there was no evidence of him being in town, Dante figured that, obviously, he isn't in town anymore. He hasn't left the island either, meaning Nero must be somewhere in the rural, unpopulated areas. The island's unpopulated portion is a fairly good size and it would take countless hours to find him on foot, as the terrain isn't suitable for cars. It was for this reason that Dante took his bike with him onto the ferry, something he doesn't normally do. It would still take a sizeable amount of time to search all of the island, but it's at least doable on his motorcycle. As he slowly drove up to the middle of town, mindful of the bewildered crowds of people watching him, he spotted Jack and Willow standing beside the large, ornate fountain, conversing to one another. Willow had told him to meet them there, to discuss what they should do next. Jack, of course, had a frazzled, unkempt appearance and an overly-concerned expression. Willow seemed to be behaving in much more logical fashion, rather than letting his emotions control him.

"Ah, Dante! There you are!" Willow turned to greet him upon noticing the motorcycle's approaching engine noise. "I'm glad you're here, but… I don't think there's much we can do now." He said in reference to the sun's dying light. Thanks to the heavy traffic, he wasn't able to get here until 7 o'clock. There was only an hour and a half left of light before dusk.

"We can still so more! I can work in the dark!" Jack pleaded with Willow.

"It's alright, I've got an idea." Dante said as he pulled up next to them, before Willow could speak again. He killed his engine so that they could hear one another easier, but didn't bother getting off his bike for this short conversation. The other two observed him, waiting for him to explain further. "Obviously, he's not in Fortuna anymore. But you two can do another round of searching where you think he could be on the outskirts of town. Maybe question some of the food places around here too, since he's probably eaten since this morning." He crossed his arms idly as he spoke. "I brought my motorcycle here so that I could search farther out in the island while you do that." Both men looked away from him as they thought about this plan of his.

"Well, what do you think?" Willow questioned Jack after a few seconds of silence, looking over towards him. Jack exhaled deeply before responding.

"I think that's probably our best idea right now… He can cover more ground than us and he has a headlight on his bike too, if nobody's found him before dark." He answered somberly, finally looking up at Willow. "But I'm not giving up if we haven't found him by then." Jack said sternly. "I'll go walking around in the woods with a flashlight all night if I have to!"

"Nobody's saying we have to give up, but you know we can't go traipsing out there in the dark. We'll be drawing attention to ourselves and that's too dangerous." Willow reminded him.

"Too dangerous? We're demon hunters! We can handle a bit of danger!" Jack began to argue, crossing his arms across his chest aggressively.

"Let's just stick to the plan we've got right now. If it's dark and we still haven't found him, then we'll regroup here." Dante interrupted them in a serious, but still slightly light hearted tone to ease the tension. "But right now we're killing daylight." He reminded them.

"He's right, arguing won't get us anywhere." Willow agreed. "Dante," He paused to look at Dante, making sure he had his attention "go ahead and circle the island on the beach first, before you go into the woods. You'll cover more land if you start there and it'll narrow down our search by a lot, alright?" Receiving an agreeing nod from him, Jack and Willow immediately sped off toward their first destination - a nearby food stand, that is, to question the people working there. Dante watched the two men leave for a few seconds, before looking ahead of himself as he started the engine back up. He sat there for another couple moments still, contemplating which direction he should go in. Figuring he'll end up making a circle no matter what direction he went in, he decided to take the northern route out of the town, as that was the route that he was closest to anyways. As the sun was beginning to set, marking the end of the day, the civilians of Fortuna had begun returning to their homes, making the streets much clearer and easier for Dante to navigate.

Upon exiting Fortuna, Dante took a sharp left onto a heavily used dirt path, towards the shoreline. The town was actually a few miles away from the closest beach rather than being right next to the waters, since, according to Willow, the buildings near the waters were washed away a very long time ago due to the sometimes violent sea storms that pass over the island in the summer. Sensibly, the buildings were never rebuilt and the town simply moved back some. This was also the reason why the tree line was a mile or two away from the beach - not even the mightiest oak could withstand the powerful storm winds. Save for one or two brave palm trees that survive for a few years, before toppling over, the island's beaches were bare. However, despite the lack of vegetation, the shores were quite beautiful. The sand was an exquisite, almost unnatural, white color. Seashells were abound and dotted the shoreline with their various colors, except for the popular beach tourist locations, where all the shells had been picked clean off the beach.

As Dante rode along beside the beach, on the more firm sand as opposed to being on the wet sand next to the water, it was hard to not notice the abundance of life. Unlike most beautiful islands, Fortuna island had retained its natural beauty by giving restricted access to outsiders, and so, had retained the wildlife that thrive on its shores. Yes, tourists were allowed on the island, but in limited numbers. As an added measure, they were also restricted to traveling only within the town or to designated beaches. Straying from these boundaries was forbidden. Because of this, the native wildlife that would normally be in hiding out of fear of the excessive amount of humans traipsing on their homes, were instead out and about. Crabs of all kinds and sizes were digging, scavenging, and even fighting amongst each other next to the water. Seagulls were happy to dive down and snatch up the smallest of the crustaceans that were unlucky enough to be seen, before returning to sitting on the water and preening their white and grey feathers. Occasionally, the dorsal fin of a dolphin or two could be seen in the distance as well.

Eventually, Dante had almost ridden all the way to the other tip of the island. The island was a sort of teardrop shape, with the town of Fortuna being on the rounder end and the rest of the island essentially being devoid of human life. As he got closer to the other end of the island, he noticed something peculiar. He spotted a lone, large palm tree that was strangely not located on land, but is instead sitting in a couple feet of water. Not only was this odd since larger trees don't usually survive this close to shore, but the tree was _in_ the water! He soon spied a familiar looking, white haired man who was also sitting in the water, beside the aforementioned tree. The man had left behind his trench coat and footwear on the beach, away from the water, probably to keep said pieces of clothing from getting wet. As Dante approached and came to a stop next to the small pile of clothing, he watched the man. But he did not move, nor did he even acknowledge Dante's presence, even though there is no way he did not hear the motorcycle's loud engine coming closer to him. Switching off his bike and putting down it's kickstand, Dante grabbed out his cell phone. He sent a simple text to Willow, saying that he's found Nero and that's he's alright, before he carelessly tossed the phone onto the soft, sandy ground. Getting off of his motorcycle, Dante made his own pile of clothes, which consisted of his coat, phone, gloves, gun harness*, shoes and socks, as well as his sword and guns. He figures Nero won't come out of the water to greet him, instead forcing Dante to join him in the corrosive salt water, so he might as well leave his valuables here, where they won't get ruined.

Stepping barefoot onto the sand, he took note of how warm the sand was. It made him realize just how chilly he was, after having ridden through the windy air on his bike up until now. Making his way into the water, not making any effort to not make noise or slosh the water as he walked, Nero still did not look at him. Rather, he only looked in front of himself, towards the horizon and approaching sunset. His knees were up, out of the water, so that he could rest his arms upon them comfortably. He had his head leaned up against the palm tree. With him sitting, the water came up to his midsection, with the rhythmic waves approaching the shore sometimes splashing up to his upper chest.

"You gave us a bit of a scare, ya know?" Dante spoke up as he came up beside him, half not expecting an actual response from him. There was a few seconds of silence before there was indeed a reply.

"Yeah, I seem to be doing that a lot lately." Nero said as he lifted up his demonic arm, observing all of its attributes, before he flopped the appendage back down onto his knee, insinuating that his arm is what scares everybody. As he spoke, Dante sat down in the water, next to him. The water felt quite nice; it wasn't suspiciously warm, but it wasn't cold either.

"Is that what this is about? Your arm?" He questioned.

"No, not really. But it does scare almost everybody in Fortuna." Nero explained. As he did, Dante couldn't help but observe how sad he looked. Not in his expression, but in his appearance. The dark circles under his eyes indicates he hasn't had a decent night's sleep in a long time, his even paler than normal skin showed that he hadn't been out in the sunlight for weeks, and he even had a bit of stubble beginning to grow. He did still have a nice amount of muscle despite his lack of activity lately, though he had clearly lost weight. That last bit was easy to see, as since Nero was coatless, his sleeveless undershirt was exposed, along with his arms. It was a painful sight to see for Dante, the mixture of exhaustion and hurt on an otherwise handsome man. "Have I ever told you how I got this arm?" Nero interrupted Dante's thoughts unknowingly, looking over at the other man for the first time.

"I assumed you were born with it?"

"No, I was born with two normal arms." He began, looking back out towards the horizon after he spoke. "A few months before the Savior Incident, me and Kyrie were out in the woods, about a couple miles from town. I don't remember why we were out there, I just remember she needed something from that area." He paused. "Anyways, because of the hell gate that Agnus opened, there were lots of demons out there. I couldn't let her go out there alone, and Credo was always busy," He paused again, with a small sigh "so I went with her. Of course, we were attacked by scarecrows. But there were more of them than I had anticipated." He shook his head, as if mentally cursing himself. "Long story short, I was able to protect Kyrie and get us both out of there, but I got a nasty gash on my arm." Nero lifted up his devil bringer, then used a finger from his other hand to trace a six inch long line, representing the gash, in the middle of his devil bringer's forearm. "It even chipped into some of the bone." He laid his arm back down. "And that's when my arm started to change. I didn't have this super-fast healing factor or whatever it is back then, so as the wound slowly healed, it also started changing. At first it was the blue skin, which started at the wound and then eventually spread all the way to my shoulder." Using his normal arm, he pointed out where the blue skin meets his normal skin tone on his right shoulder**. Since he didn't have his coat on, just his sleeveless undershirt, it was easy to see the entirety of his demonic arm.

"Which, that scared the hell outta me. I thought it was turning blue from blood loss and I'd end up losing my entire right arm." Nero continued as Dante patiently, and quietly, listened. "But I didn't. Then the skin on my forearm started getting tougher, thicker… until it became hide-like, like it is now. Then there was the odd glowing that came from it…. All in all, by the time you came around, it was how it is now. Kyrie was the only one who knew about it, and she insisted it was just some weird growth that would eventually go away." He let out a long sigh. "I tried to believe her, but sometimes I would just sit and look at it. Deep down, I knew my arm wasn't human anymore, but I also thought I was just human. But, you can't be fully human with one demonic limb, so… I just tried to believe that Kyrie was right, and one day it'd go back to normal." Nero looked over at Dante, who hadn't looked away from him, once more. "It wasn't until you showed up and told me otherwise that I realized you can be both human and demon." He looked at Dante for a few moments more before he resumed looking out at the lowering sun. "I still wonder what would've happened if I hadn't of been so distracted with protecting her while fighting off those demons though." He paused for a few moments, then spoke again, answering his own question. "I would probably still look normal."

"Whaddaya mean? You look normal to me." Dante tried to reassure him, though this caused Nero to chuckle at him.

"I look normal to you because you never saw me with two human arms. I look like a I've become a monster to everybody else."

"You're not a monster, Nero." By using his real name, instead of calling him 'kid', Dante hoped that Nero understood he was being serious with him.

"I know that, but other people don't understand. They take one look at my arm and suddenly I'm some kind of terrible creature to them."

"I thought you didn't care about what people think of you?" Dante teased him, trying lighten up the discussion and help him to feel better.

"Well, no, I don't. I don't mind if people hate me for me being who I am. But people instantly judging me based on my looks, before they even get to know me…. that's different."

"Listen, kid, your arm _is_ you now. I'm not saying you should run around proudly displaying it, but you can't hide who you are just because some people don't like it." Dante told him. "And besides, the people who do judge you because of your arm aren't worth worrying about."

"I know, I know.." Nero said, almost sounding like a little kid being lectured. "I've accepted who I am, for the most part. There's just been a lot that's happened this past year, it's a lot to take in. That's why I decided I should spend the day here, where I can just think, by myself."

"Tell me about it then." Dante said, since Nero wasn't offering to explain himself further. As he leaned back with his hands behind himself, propping himself up, Dante crossed his legs underneath the water. He felt the tiny minnows that were swimming along next to them picking at his exposed fingers. He did not mind this though, as the fish were so small that their picking felt like nothing more than a very tiny poke at his finger. In fact, it kinda tickled.

"About what?"

"What's been going on." He clarified.

"Well, you already know everything, actually. My arm changing, finding out I'm half human half demon, almost losing Kyrie because of Sanctus, Credo dying, getting together with Kyrie, finding out she was pregnant… then almost marrying her, only for her to leave me at the alter." He paused with a solemn expression. "I think that's probably why I got so attached to her." Nero added quietly in realization.

"Why's that?" He asked, as Nero seemed to come to that conclusion for seemingly no real reason.

"She's all I had left." The younger told him. "Both my real and adoptive parents are dead, Credo's gone, and then after almost losing her, the only family I had left, during the Savior Incident… I just wanted to keep her safe. And she accepted me for who I am. She didn't like it, but she wasn't afraid of me or my arm." Nero paused to think, then smiled just enough for it to be noticeable. "She was always there for me when we were kids too. Always helping me out, getting me out of trouble, doing things for me. She was more of a mother than my adoptive mother. Somewhere along the way I developed a crush on her, and I just went with it. Never questioned why I liked her, I just did." He paused again, but this time, his smile turned into a frown. "I would've done anything for her."

"You must really love her." Dante said, observing Nero's sad expression after a few moments of silence had passed.

"I did." Nero said with a heavy sigh. "But that's why I needed time to think, alone. If somebody had told me about what would happen to me in this past year, I'd say that person was batshit crazy. I went from living a relatively normal life to… whatever you'd call the life I have now, in just a year's time."

"Yeah, 19 seems to be a helluva year for everybody." Dante joked, reminiscing internally of his own 19th year. "But you'll get through it."

"Hmph," Nero scoffed "my birthday is just a few weeks away, so I sure hope I can make it to then." He joked back, smiling some again. "What happened when you were 19?" Nero looked over at him, assuming Dante must've had it rough too, based on the statement he just made to him.

"Well…" Dante hesitated. "Uhh.." He tried to think of a way to get around his question without actually answering him. He hadn't talked about his brother, or what had happened between them, in quite a long time, and he didn't really feel like talking about it now either. "19 is usually just a hard year."

"Uh huh." Nero spoke in a skeptical tone. "Too old to remember?" The elder man chuckled lightly at this.

"Yeah, sure, that's it." He'd rather just be called old than tell him the story.

"C'mon, Dante. What happened?" Nero persisted.

"Okay, fine, I'll tell ya." Dante gave in with a smile, knowing that, at this point, Nero won't stop asking until he tells him. He's stubborn like that. "I was 19 when my brother died." He gave a simple answer, hoping that may satisfy Nero's curiosity.

"Vergil?"

"Mhm." He hummed affirmatively.

"Tell me about it then. Or about him. I know he's your brother and he was a bad guy, but I don't know why he was bad, or really anything about him... Were you two close?" Nero asked inquisitively. Averting his gaze from Nero, Dante looked out towards the sea, so he may think more clearly.

"Yeah, we were." He said finally, after taking a few seconds to quietly think. "When we were kids, at least. We kinda grew apart, I guess."

"How so?"

"Well, he wanted to open up the hell gate-" "Which one?" Nero interrupted. "Temen-ni-gru. The main one." Dante explained, then shrugged. "But he may have been planning to open them all, I don't know. He wanted to open Temen-ni-gru in particular though, since that's where Sparda sealed his powers at. I couldn't exactly let him open up the human world to an invasion of demons, and I had no interest in our father's power, but my brother was consumed with it." He stopped briefly, then laughed lightly. "Back then, I wanted so little to do with Sparda, his power, and everything about him, that I would always just say I didn't have a father***."

"So you didn't want to accept who you were?" The younger man said in a patronizing, yet joking tone, as Dante had just given him a small lecture on Nero accepting who he was.

"No, I didn't." He readily admitted. Turning to look over at Nero, he continued to speak. "Which is why I'm telling you that you are who you are, whether you like it or not. No point in trying to deny it."

"And how long did it take you to realize that?"

"A while. It is what it is." Dante said casually with a one shouldered shrug.

"Sounds like your 19th year wasn't a walk in the park either then." Nero agreed with him, smiling at him a little.

"I told ya, it's a rough year for everybody." Dante smiled back at him briefly, before both men decided to gaze out towards the sunset to make the ensuing silence less awkward. It was then that Dante saw just how amazing the atmosphere is out here. It was no wonder why Nero came here, everything was so relaxing and carefree here. There were some lone seagulls calling to one another in the background, perhaps telling each other goodnight. The sun had lowered itself down enough to where it met the sea. As it continued its descent, the sky around it was full of color. Purple, blue, orange, red… it was like the sun was painting an impossibly perfect rainbow of colors as it's light was slowly being replaced by its nighttime counterpart, the moon. Wait… this looked kinda familiar, now that he thought about it. Where could he have seen something like this before?

Then it clicked. The dream he had a while back. That's right, he had dreamed of him and Nero being on a beach at one point! The sky, the sunset, the noises around them, even the warm, white sand, it was all just like in his dream. Of course, there were some differences… For instance, they were sitting in water, not standing on the shore. Then there was the fact that there was no possibility of them participating in anything beyond what friends would do, unlike in his dream. That was a bummer, but he still thought it was kinda cool how his mind seemed to know they'd be here at some point. After roughly a half minute of silence between them, Nero spoke up once more, turning his head towards the other man.

"You wanna know the most traumatizing part of this year?"

"Hm?" Dante hummed.

"There was this really old guy who kissed me." Really old guy? I mean, sure, he's older than Nero, but c'mon, he's not really old.. Nevertheless, Dante couldn't help but smirk, though he continued to look out at the sunset rather than at Nero. At least the kid was joking with him again.

"Really? That sounds awful." He said in joking, pretending-to-be-genuine tone. "Want me to teach him a lesson for you?"

"Nah, I beat him up pretty good. Broke his jaw at least."

"That's all?"

"Yeah, but I also yelled at him afterwards… Said some things I shouldn't of said." Nero said the last half of his sentence quietly, but still loud enough to be heard. Dante's smirk faded and he paused for a few seconds before responding.

"I'm sure he's heard worse."

"Maybe. But he shouldn't hear that from a friend. And I shouldn't of been so harsh with him either." The older of the two shrugged this off nonchalantly.

"Sounds to me like he deserved it after what he did to you."

"No, he didn't. Most of what I said wasn't even the truth, I was just angry. And I don't even know why I was so mad." Nero's tone was soft, as if the guilt he was feeling was even being emitted out through his voice.

"Most of?" Dante turned to look over at him.

"Well, I mean, he is an egotistical womanizer who drinks too much." Dante had to nod a little bit to this with an expression that further conveyed his agreement with him. I mean, yeah, he likes women, his liquor, and himself. Not much to argue about on that. "But everything else I said…" Exhaling a small sigh, he continued. "I just shouldn't of said the things I said to him."

"What're you gonna do about it then? Have you talked to him?" Dante continued to act as though they were talking about another person and not him.

"No, I haven't said anything. I want to tell him I'm sorry, but, uh… I've never been good at that. So, I've been trying to figure out how to apologize while also insulting him." Dante chuckled with a smile at that. Yup, that definitely sounded like Nero.

"Nah, I'm sure he's over it. No big deal." Out of the corner of his eye, Dante could see Nero smiling - widely, in fact. Something he probably hasn't done in a while.

"I hope so." Nero concluded. "Say, you seem to know a lot about this guy."

"Yeah, I mean, we talk pretty often." Dante joked.

"Uh huh." Nero said skeptically. "Well, during those talks, did you happen to ask him why he kissed me?"

"Why he kissed you?" Dante reiterated as he tried to bullshit up an excuse.

"Yeah."

"I don't know what you mean by that." Dante shrugged, causing Nero to roll his eyes, irritated slightly by his avoidance of the question.

"I mean, was he just testing the waters," In other words, seeing if he liked men "or was he just trying to get in my pants, or… maybe the old pervert's thinkin' 'bout actually being with somebody?" He questioned. "For more than one night."

"Being with somebody?" Dante continued to play dumb.

"Yeah, in like a relationship."

"Well, you know, honestly, I'd say he was trying to do all three." He said with a cocky smirk. "Ow!" He yelped with a chuckle, having received a solid punch to the arm by Nero. "What'd you do that for? I said _he_ was!" Dante said as he looked at the man while sorely rubbing his slightly bruised arm. Despite pleading his innocence, he retained the smirk on his face, full well knowing why he was punched.

"Send that along to him, will ya?" Nero joked playfully before he absentmindedly crossed his arms. "Do you actually think the player is done playing, though?"

"Yeah, probably. That kinda life is fun at first, but after a while, you just become tired of it. After all, what's the fun in playing a game you always win at?" He joked with a wide smirk, though he knew this was a partial lie. When he was Nero's age, he almost never 'won' the 'game'. In fact, the ladies practically hated him!

"And what makes him think he can get a young, attractive person to date him, after he's had all that fun as a bachelor for all those years?"

"Oh no, he doesn't think he can." Dante told him. His tone was cheerful, but his expression had turned somber. "Nah, he knows he doesn't have a shot. After all, he's an old guy, right? No way he'd win over a young hottie. He's probably settled with just enjoying the view."

"Is that so?" Nero questioned, to which the other man nodded. "Well…" He began, after a few moments of silence ticked by "I don't think he should settle with that so quickly."

"Why's that?" Dante looked over at him once more, his solemn mood changing to one of curiosity.

"Well, I mean.. honestly, after all this shit that's happened, I've learned that women aren't exactly the perfect beings I thought they were. So, yeah, I can settle for an old man, as long as he's loyal and keeps me happy." Nero told him as he gave him a small smile.

"Really?" He questioned with interest. The fact that Nero said he'd "settle" for an "old man," meaning him, did not seem to faze him. Though, he restrained himself becoming enthusiastic, firmly believing that Nero was just messing with him.

"Yeah, I don't see why not." Nero shrugged as he watched a fish jump out from the water in the distance. "There's a first time for everything, right?"

"I suppose so." Dante answered idly.

"But can he?" He turned to look at the other man moments later. Dante, who had also spied the jumping fish, met his gaze.

"Can he what?" Figuring they had moved onto another conversation by now, he did not know what Nero meant.

"Can he, after all these years of one night stands with attractive women, be able to be loyal to just one person?" Nero asked him sternly. Huh, he doesn't seem to be joking… This doesn't make sense though. The kid can't actually be serious, can he? Sure, Dante's quite attractive and can give a girl a good time for a night, but… He's not dating material.

"Uh, well…" He hesitated, unsure if he should seriously or jokingly respond. If he responded seriously and Nero was joking, he'd never hear the end of Nero ridiculing him. But if he jokes with him and Nero's actually being serious, he'll ruin his only shot at getting him. However, upon observing Nero's dead serious expression, Dante's eyes widen with realization: Nero either has a damn good poker face, or he isn't messing around.

"Old dogs can still learn new tricks, right?" Dante finally said after moments of quiet. Nero responded with a small, pondering nod, before looking out at the waves, apparently thinking to himself.

A minute or two later into the ensuing silence and Nero was still not offering any sort of explanation or further response to him. Instead, all he seemed to want to do was watch the waves. Dante wanted to find out what he meant, but up until now, he was unsure of how to do so. "You can't be serious, right, kid?" Dante finally vocalized his doubts in a quiet tone, a questioning eyebrow raised. By now, the anticipation was practically eating away at him.

"If you keep calling me kid, I won't be serious." Nero warned him.

"Oh, okay, sorry, I'll try that again." He pretended as though his apology was genuine. "You can't be serious, right, babe?" At this, Nero turned to him, his eyebrows furrowed and his mouth slightly agape, as if in disbelief that Dante would call him such a thing - as if the word 'babe' was an incredibly insulting curse word. Meanwhile, the man in question held a proud smirk on his face, refusing to apologize this time.

"Yeeeaaah." He replied slowly, his eyebrows still furrowed at the man. "I am being serious." Dante briefly contemplated what he should say next, his smirk fading for a more thoughtful expression.

"But, I mean… It doesn't bother you that you're both, you know, men?" He questioned. Nero replied with a shrug before verbally responding.

"Nah, I've never been good at anatomy. I did fail that class in school, after all." Nero joked with a smile. "Why, does that bother him?" He continued to refer to Dante as though he were somebody else.

"What? Oh, no!" Dante quickly answered. "No, he doesn't mind. It'll be a new experience for him, but… no, that doesn't matter."

"What, dating or being with a guy?" Nero teased.

"Both, actually." He said with a light chuckle, which caused the other to smile warmly in response to his laughter.

For the next several minutes, neither one of them talked. They were watching as the sun finally hid itself completely below the horizon's line, leaving the last rays that still radiated out from the orange ball clinging to the sky. Inevitably, the sun's presence left completely, leaving the moonlight to take over the skies. The night sky was a clear one, allowing the moon to shine at its brightest. This in turn gave the two hunters the ability to not be completely blind in the darkness.

"C'mon, it's getting late. We outta start getting you back to headquarters." As he softly spoke, Dante stood up, disturbing the previously peaceful water around them. Without a word, Nero followed his lead in standing up as well, then followed behind the older man as they made their way back to shore.

Walking back to their pile of dry clothes, Nero noticed Dante only had his motorcycle with him. "How are we both gonna get there?" He questioned as he began to put his footwear back on.

"On my bike." He responded as gathered and put his various accessories back on.

"We can't both fit on there." Nero said as he was putting his coat on, skeptically eyeing the motorcycle in question as he did so. After holstering his guns, Dante handed Rebellion to him. At first, Nero questioned this action, but then figured the man must be wanting him to place the sword on his own back, since Nero did not have Red Queen with him. As he did just this, Dante approached his bike and, swinging his leg over onto the other side of it, sat down on its seat. Looking back over to Nero, who was visibly questioning him, he patted the small extra space on the seat behind him, a smirk on his face.

"Sit behind you? What the hell am I going to hold onto?" He asked as he looked for any sort of part on the bike that he would be able to hold onto.

"Me." Dante answered, his smirk never wavering. Defiantly crossing his arms beforehand, Nero spoke again.

"No."

"It's the only way."

"I'm not doing it." Nero said seriously.

"Okay, okay. How about you drive and I hold onto you?" He said slyly. Rolling his eyes at the man with a scoff, Nero decided on the lesser of two evils. Uncrossing his arms, he hesitantly approached the motorcycle. As nobody in the town owns or sells motorcycles, Nero had never been on one before. They seemed like death machines to him anyways, capable of going ridiculously fast while offering absolutely no protection if you got into a collision. That, and he was certain that Dante drives like a maniac. Speaking of whom, Dante must've seen the concern on his face, as he scooted up just a little bit more, giving him more space. Very slowly, Nero swung his leg over and sat down behind him, though he made sure to leave at least an inch of space between them. Furthering his refusal to touch him, Nero decided to tightly grip the edges of the seat, rather than holding onto Dante.

"You sure you want to do that?" Dante questioned, having noticed Nero's decision to awkwardly grip the seat instead.

"I'll be fine." He insisted, though inside he wasn't so sure. Shrugging, Dante looked ahead of himself as he turned on the motorcycle's light's and engine. Had Nero of been able to see the devious, wide smirk on Dante's face, he probably would've decided walking home would be a better option. Instead, he found this out soon after they took off, as Dante clearly had no intentions of taking off at a slow pace. Fearing for his life, Nero's body betrayed him, as his hands quickly abandoned holding onto the seat in favor of tightly holding onto the sides of the man in front of him. But he still refused to allow himself to press his body against him, or to wrap his arms around Dante's stomach, no matter how afraid he got. The man still had his dignity, after all.

That is, until Dante decided he'd drive like some God damn bat outta hell the entire ride back. By the time they safely made it to a stop in front the headquarters building, Nero had long since given up the idea of having any kind of pride or masculinity. He just wanted to live. That meant that any sort of space between them was gone, as the young man had his arms tightly wrapped around Dante, with the side of his face squished up against his back. His eyes tightly sealed shut, he must not of realized they stopped, as he still clung to the older man as if they were still traveling at 100mph.

"We're here." Dante told him. Throughout the entire ride, he had held a smirk on his face, as if he was proud of what he had accomplished. Immediately opening his eyes, Nero lifted his head up and quickly looked around, either to make sure that Dante was telling the truth or to make sure nobody had seen them. Either way, with the coast clear, Nero dashed off of the bike as soon as he possibly physically could.

"You damn pervert, you just wanted me to touch you!" Nero angrily accused him, his legs a bit shaky from having to clamp down on the bike so hard.

"What? No, that's how I normally drive." Well, he wasn't completely lying at least. _Normally,_ he only uses his bike when going on an urgent mission, where he has to drive crazy anyways. His smirk made him seem less than truthful, though.

"Whatever. At least you didn't get us killed." Nero muttered as he fixed his hair and clothes, as they had both gotten wildly out-of-place from the wind. Meanwhile, Dante just laughed at him, since he knew they were never in any real danger. "Oh, here." Taking Rebellion off his back, Nero handed her off to Dante, almost forgetting he had her since Rebellion weighs about the same as his own sword.

"Thanks." He said as he returned his favorite sword back to her natural place - on his back. As Dante began to move in a way that indicated he was about to turn around his bike to leave, Nero spoke up, stopping him in his tracks.

"Hey, uh.. When are you coming back?" Nero asked timidly, his previously mad demeanor long gone and instead leaving an uncharacteristically uncertain expression in its place.

"Um…" He idly spoke, briefly looking away from him to focus on thinking before looking at him again. "What's today, Thursday?"

"Yeah."

"Sunday's usually a pretty slow day for me. That alright?" Dante questioned.

"Yeah, sure, that's fine." Nero's voice was still in a quieter tone than how it normally is.

"Alright. See you then, kid." He flashed him a small smile before he began the process of rolling his bike around to face the other direction.

"Dammit Dante, I told you to stop calling me that!" He shouted irritatedly as he watched the man begin to leave.

"Oh damn, sorry, babe. It's probably gonna take me a while stop that." He had a smug expression as he took off, not bothering to look back at Nero, as he already knew the younger man was shooting a threatening glare, as well as some colorful language, at him. Oh well, he'll just have to get use to his new nickname eventually.

Well, that's assuming things between them last more than a couple weeks, and that's a pretty big assumption.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Yes, those three odd straps across Dante's chest in DMC4 is actually the straps to his gun harness. Most people think he just decided to wear three chest belts, then a fourth real belt on his pants, but no, that's his harness. I found this out in the DMC graphics artbook, which depicted several of Dante's original designs, including a design that had him wearing this harness on the outside of his coat. It was clear it was a gun harness in that design, but it made him look clunky, so they instead had him wear the harness underneath the coat, where the purpose of the three straps is unclear. I believe it may have also doubled as his sword holster.
> 
> **Firstly, yes, that is the actual official story of how Nero got his arm. Which is why Kyrie says, in the beginning of DMC4, that Nero can't go fight Dante because he hasn't fully recovered yet. Secondly, that really is the anatomy of his arm. He's got the thick, demonic hide up to his elbow, then his skin is blue, but otherwise normal, up to his shoulder, where his skin goes back to it's normal color. This is also made clear in the DMC graphics artbook, where it shows Nero's sleeveless undershirt underneath his coat, as well as his arm.
> 
> ***In DMC3, Dante tells Vergil he has no father. He's also shown to be really resistant to any sort of power gain, or being associated with their father, in that game.
> 
> Nero's feeling better, things are starting to happen between them, and Dante's up to his old tricks. I enjoyed writing this chapter, but it was also a bitch to write. Since Dante's not much for talking serious, and Nero's a shy guy(I mean, my God, Kyrie had to almost die for him to confess his feelings for her!), it wasn't easy finding a way for them to 'confess' without it being a serious, cheesy, or a loving confession. Their so-called confession is intentionally very vague and questions whether they're actually in a relationship now on purpose, because, well, they're both vague guys. Neither one will outright ask the other, they'll just play along until they figure it out. But, all relationship are difficult in the beginning, right?


	21. Decisions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a little side note, I would just like to say that no matter how long it takes me to update thanks to life intervening, I won't ditch this story! Thank you everyone for your kind words, support and patience. When I'm having a bad case of writers block or am just feeling down, I'm able to just look back at your reviews to get myself motivated again! As always, thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoy!

October 16th  
Today had been a great day. In fact, it may have even been the one of the best days Dante could remember having for a while now. Nothing particularly special had happened, but that is the exact reason why today was such a good day to him. Him and Nero had decided to spend the day in town, nothing major, just walking around and hitting up the local joints. They had gone to see a movie, ate lunch together, and essentially hung out with each other. Neither one talked about their jobs or the missions they did or needed to do; they talked about their normal lives and who they really are, outside of being hunters. It was amazing. It was like, for just one day, Dante had a normal life. Now, don't get him wrong, he loves doing what he does. He wouldn't change a thing about his life, even if he could. But it was nice to have a break, to experience what a normal person would get to do on a daily basis. The stability, the simplicity, the sense of security that comes with being normal… it was quite different from his complicated and fast-paced life, where he wakes up on any given day knowing full well it could be his last if he screws up. It was quite relaxing to just spend the day, doing nothing important, with Nero, his new.. uh… partner? No, that makes it sound like they're cops… Significant other? Way too formal sounding... Whatever, he'll just call him his boyfriend, whether the kid likes it or not. 

"Hey, you hungry?" Said kid spoke up.

"Eh?" Dante mumbled, half not hearing what he had said, due to him still thinking to himself. He turned to look over at Nero, who was standing beside him. Both men were on a small pedestrian bridge right outside of town, leaning their elbows on the railing, looking out over the medium sized pond below them. The pond was full of multicolored koi fish, who were occasionally bobbing their heads to the pond's surface, begging them for the food that the tourists usually toss at them. It was odd, Dante didn't remember there being a koi pond here, or really any kind of pond. Fountains, yes, but not ponds. But who was he to question it? Nero knew the town much better than he did, it's feasible that he just didn't notice one small pond.

"Are you hungry?" The younger reiterated.

"Oh, yeah, I can go for a bite." He actually was a bit hungry - they hadn't eaten since noon, and it was already approaching 6 o'clock. 

"There's this little food stand just around the corner." Nero told him, looking over towards a nearby building and pointing towards it to further convey what he was saying. "Want me to grab us something?" He offered, turning his head back to the other man. 

"What? Don't want me to come with you? Are ya sick of me already?" Dante teased him with a smile. Rolling his eyes, Nero chuckled.

"No, there's just no point in both of us going."

"Uh huh." Dante pretended to sound skeptical of him. "Alright then, I'll get whatever you're getting then."

"Got it. I'll be right back then." Nero smiled at him and, before turning and walking towards the direction of the food stand, gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Yeah, it wasn't much, but Dante quickly found out earlier today that that's as far as the young man is willing to go at this point. Which, Dante wasn't complaining, he pretty much expected Nero would be a tough nut to crack as far as intimacy goes anyways. Honestly, he actually kinda liked it, just being kissed on the cheek. It wasn't a sexual act, yet it signified that they were indeed a couple, and knowing that significance made him feel an oddly warm emotion that he hadn't felt in what seemed like ages. Smiling, he watched Nero as he walked away, until he turned the corner and was out of sight. Speaking of smiling, he was surprised at how often he found himself doing so. Not the fake smiles or the smirks that he's infamous for, but true, genuine smiles. It was strange. Him and Nero only just started dating, things could still go terribly wrong with them, they haven't been intimate and he hasn't gotten any satisfactory action for a while now, yet… Dante found that he was more content than before, even when he's not around the hot head.

\----------------------------------

Looking over at the clock on top of the tall building distantly located in the middle of town, Dante realized it had been a while since Nero left. He had gotten lost in his own thoughts about his life, his career, Nero, their relationship, and so on, and because of this, hadn't been keeping track of time after Nero left. But Dante did know that it felt like he had been gone longer than he said he would be, especially since he was just quickly grabbing some food from a food stand. Figuring he outta go see what the holdup is, he abandoned the pond in favor of walking towards the building that Nero had gone around. It is right around dinner time though, so there may be a line of people at the stand that Nero wasn't expecting. Either way, there's no point in him hanging around on the bridge anymore. As he neared the building's corner, Dante looked around himself, noticing how oddly silent and still everything is. There were no people out. No dogs barking. Not even the normally very vocal songbirds were chirping. Where is everyone? Sure, it's getting late, but at this time there's still at least a few people walking the streets. He concluded that there must be a church service going on right now, considering all citizens are required to attend the town sermons. 

Turning the corner, Dante first saw a fairly small food stand in the distance. It was styled like a stereotypical old timey food stand you'd see in the movies, simple but efficient in design. He then looked for the food stand's owner, only to see there was nobody standing behind it. He was still a good distance away, but it looked as though there was something on the ground behind the stand, what looked to be some big bags likely filled with food ingredients, but definitely no person was there. Furrowing his eyes in confusion, he continued towards the empty stand to investigate, only to realize as he came closer than the bags on the ground were not actually bags. Instead, it was the decapitated corpse of presumably the food stand's owner. His head had been placed on his stomach, propped up on the severed neck, positioned so that his cold, lifeless eyes are staring directly at Dante. Oddly, there was no blood on the man, as though he had been drained prior to death. This was, unfortunately, not his first time to stumble upon a dead body, and though it did not cause him to panic, he was forced to stop in his tracks due to the startling nature of the body. He observed the owner's body in even deeper confusion, Dante's mouth slightly agape as he tried to figure out what happened to the man and why. Suddenly, and fearfully, his eyes became wide as he realized there was another body, lying in front of the stand. He had already looked in front of the stand as he was coming closer though, nothing was there! His heart, which had previously almost stopped at the sight of the second body, began beating faster than a race horse's hooves on a race track, and he found himself to be running towards the scene, even though he did not tell his legs to move. As he got closer, he saw the body was clothed in a familiar blue and red coloring style - there was no doubt, it was Nero. But, he also saw that he was still alive, as his leg had moved slightly during the short time it took Dante to reach him. 

Collapsing down to his knees next to the injured man, Dante looked in horror as he saw the full extent of his wounds. There were three, long, claw-like gashes parallel to one another that extended from the middle of his left ribcage to the right side of his hip. He had been violently and viciously disemboweled through these openings. Nero, in a desperate attempt to help himself, was holding in what appeared to be the bottom portion of his liver and part of his small intestine with his human hand, as his devil bringer had been cut clean off of his body, leaving a bloodied stump in its place. The rest of his organs that had been set free by the gash, which Dante did not care to identify, lay strewn about around Nero's body. His blood was everywhere, it was all over the ground, the food stand, himself… His pure white hair irreversibly stained into a deep maroon. Even his face, his beautiful, perfect face, had a nasty gash extending from his right ear to the corner of his mouth. This wound did not bleed though, likely because his body had none left, and so the inner muscles of his cheek were grotesquely visible. The young man's body began to tremble violently, as he started to go into shock. Hunching over Nero's body and tenderly wrapping an arm loosely around him, Dante used his other hand to gently lift Nero's head off the cold concrete ground. It was plain to see that there is nothing he can do for him, other than to make him more comfortable for his inevitable and untimely fate.

"Wha…what happened?" He asked in a shaky, whispered tone as he carefully lifted Nero's body closer to his own. Dante painfully watched as the man below him stared up at him, his eyes widened from fright. He shakily opened his mouth to speak, though at first he did not seem to have the strength to say anything. 

"Wh…" Nero slowly began, trying to find his voice again.

"Yes, yes? What is it?" Dante encouraged as he protectively tightened his grip on him. 

"Why did you let this happen….. to me?" He asked hoarsely as a tear drop ran down his uninjured cheek. Nero looked so emotionally hurt, so incredibly sad..

"Wh-what?" Dante questioned, stunned he would say such a thing. "Nero, I didn't do this to you." He quietly pleaded with him in a panicked tone.

"Yes you did!" Nero accused him more sternly, though his voice was still weak and hushed.

"I… I don't understand. What happened? Why do you think I would do this to you?" He asked him quickly, now more panicked since Nero seems to truly believe he would even dare to lay a finger on him.

"You knew this would happen." He seemed to have temporarily regained some of his strength, as Nero had stopped shaking and was now suddenly speaking loudly. His eyes were furrowed and his saddened expression had turned to rage. "You knew I would end up dying. You have a cursed bloodline. Look at what happened to your father! Falling in love cost him not only his life, but also the lives of his friends and family. You lived only because nobody knew you existed, they only knew of your brother!" Nero's voice not only became louder, less hoarse, it also started to become deeper, resembling a more demonic tone. Visibly, he became even angrier at him, though Dante could only stare at him with a deep expression of terror, his mouth slightly open in shock. "Everybody you will ever love will die. Trish, Lady, they will die too. We will all die because of _you_! And you will allow this to happen, knowing that we will die, because you hold onto the belief you can protect us all, even though your father, who was _much_ more powerful than you could ever be, couldn't even save his own family!"

"Nero.. I-I swear.. I didn't know!" Dante continued to plead with him as he could feel tears beginning to well up in his eyes. He was terrified in this moment. Was this really all his fault?

"Oh, you knew. Why do you think you've never been in a relationship with anybody? Why do you think you've relied solely on loose women for the past 14 years for your disgusting needs? You know you can't get close to anybody! Lady and Trish are already being targeted just for being your friends… But having one sole person in your life who means everything to you," At this point, Nero's raging voice no longer was his own. "you knew they would be killed, just to hurt you. So you stayed away from relationships. Did you really think that, just because you're older and I'm half demon, I would be safe from getting killed because of you?" Dante was speechless, feeling the tears that were once being held captive in his eyes breaking loose. "You are destined to live and die alone. Otherwise, what happened to Sparda will happen to you!" Then, suddenly, Nero viciously lunged towards him with the full intent of murdering him.

Rapidly gasping for breath, Dante woke up as his torso found itself flinging upwards, making himself sit up in his bed. Though he was completely naked, save for a thin sheet loosely draped over the lower section of his body, he was covered in sweat as if the room was a sauna. His eyes widened in panic and his heart racing, he looked around the room as he continued to breathe rapidly, seeing that everything around him was perfectly normal. Realizing it was all just a nightmare, Dante began to catch his breath as he lifted his knees up, allowing him to rest his elbows on his kneecaps as he buried his face into the palms of his hands. How many times is this going to happen to him? His nights have been filled with a seemingly endless string of night terrors ever since that Thursday night. No matter what he does, every time he shuts his eyes for longer than a minute, he has these terrible dreams. Dreams of Nero dying, dreams of Nero rejecting him, dreams of things going horribly wrong in their relationship for one reason or another, dreams where his demonic side hurts Nero, and though he knows he'd never do such a thing, but also dreams of him emotionally hurting the man by cheating on him. And these were only the tip of the iceberg - there were other dreams he's had that were haunting him. Some of these nightmares were very different from each other, while others were almost identical. Throughout all his dreams though, there were always two reoccurring themes: One, only him and Nero are in them. Two, he is the reason for what's going wrong in the nightmare. Is his conscious trying to warn him? I mean, he honestly doesn't even know if there is anything going on between them anyways. Nero hinted at it a bit last time they talked, but he never explicitly outright said anything pertaining to a dating relationship between them. So why is his mind screwing around with him so much?

At this point, Dante really didn't want to wonder about why his nights were being taken over by these dreams. He just wanted some damn sleep! Then again, if he didn't get this figured out soon, there's no telling when his mind will be at ease again… Not to mention he's supposed to see Nero in the morning, but since he hasn't been able to get a wink of decent sleep these past few days, he knows he's gonna look and feel like hell. Maybe he should just stay here at the shop? Not like it'd do much good though, if he can't get some shut-eye. As his body returned to a normal state internally, he returned to lying down on his bed. He stared at his ceiling as he thought about what he should do. His body is begging him to sleep, but his mind clearly has other intentions. If he does try to salvage a few more hours of sleep, he knows his body will be slightly better rested by morning, but his mind will be even more exhausted. Tossing the sheet off of his frame, he decided he might as well just get up. Being that it was already five in the morning, Dante figured he could take a warm, relaxing shower and grab a cup of coffee before he started heading back to Fortuna.

\------------------------------------

The time is now approximately seven in the morning. Just as Dante had hoped, taking a nice, hot shower really helped to clear his mind, while the coffee helped him feel at least a little bit less tired. Normally, the man wouldn't touch coffee. The taste wasn't that appealing to him and the caffeine never really affects him enough to make drinking the harsh substance worth it. For today, though, he'd willingly gulp down a whole tub full if it meant he could stay awake and alert. While he had been sipping on the black liquid, waiting and hoping it would give him the boost of energy he needed, he thought over all the nightmares he could remember having these past few days. Most of them were set in a realistic tone, in that the scenario playing around him could very well happen. But there was one lone dream that, now that he had enough energy to coherently think, stood out to him. It was his most recent dream - the dream where Nero ends up dying. This one started in a realistic setting, then gradually turned into a full blown nightmare. Not just because Nero is wounded, but also because the voice that was speaking for him was clearly not Nero's voice. The voice also spoke of things that Nero couldn't possibly know, such as the remark that Dante only managed to live because nobody in the underworld knew Sparda had two sons.*

Perhaps there's some sort of demon messing with his head, or maybe his conscious is warning him of what will happen if anything serious happens between him and the kid, or, hell, it could even be that Mundus himself is screwing around with him. Whatever or whoever it is, they do speak the truth, at least on one thing. Dante can't be in a relationship. He just can't, the stakes are too high. You see, when he was young, he had decided that he could never be in a romantic relationship because he told himself he was afraid he would impregnate his significant other, and he certainly did not want to pass on these damned genes to anybody else. For as long as his father's lineage lives, the danger that Temen-ni-gru, the main hell gate, will be reopened again will always remain. And so, Dante made the choice to remain a bachelor for the rest of his life, to help ensure the Spardan lineage ended with him. Deep down, he knew the real reason why he chose to be alone in life, but had long ago decided to ignore that reason. After all, if he was seriously afraid of impregnating somebody, he would've remained celibate. However, that explanation was much easier for him to accept being alone than the real reason. If he were to tell himself he can't be in a relationship because he shouldn't have kids, that means not dating somebody would be his choice. Though, in reality, it was never his choice. He knew that if he were to ever date somebody, that person would immediately be put in danger of being killed by demons looking to hurt him. He also knew that, if that were to happen, if somebody he had fallen in love with died because of him, he would never be able to forgive himself. 

Over time, he had begun to believe the lie he told himself of why he doesn't date, and gradually forgot all about the truth. It was because of this that Dante had allowed himself to get too close to Nero. He certainly couldn't impregnate him, so what was so wrong with dating him? It wasn't until he thought about that dream again that he even remembered the long-forgotten truth. As he walked up the headquarters' stairs, he made his decision on what he should do. He has to put an end to whatever kind of 'more than just friends' relationship he and Nero may or may not have. He absolutely hated this and he hated himself for what he was about to have to do, but when it comes down to it, he doesn't have any other choice. Whether it's today, tomorrow, next week, or even if their relationship lasted twenty years from now, Nero will end up getting hurt, and Dante would rather hurt himself than let somebody else suffer because of him. 

As he entered into headquarters, he noticed how quiet and lifeless it was inside. Cautiously, he closed the creaking double doors behind him and begun the trek down the hall. "Hello?" he called out, though he was only met with the sound of his own boots hitting the floor as he walked further into the building. As he made his way past several public rooms, including meeting rooms, the livingroom, and so on, Dante found that there really was nobody around, which is strange for a building that's usually teeming with busy people. He found himself hoping this wasn't another dream, and that he just happened to walk in at an unusually quiet hour. After all, he's only been here in the early hours once before.  
"Hey, there ya are." Dante spoke, startling the young man who was sitting at a table in the kitchen he just walked into. 

"What?" Nero said with a start, since he had been previously half-sleeping as he had his head leaned on the palm of his human hand, with his elbow on the table. "Oh, hey Dante." He greeted upon looking over at the source of the voice that had disturbed the quiet. Yawning as he tiredly rubbed his left eye, he spoke to him again. "What're you doing here so early?"

"Figured I'd go ahead and swing by since I was already up with nothing to do." He briefly explained as he relieved himself of his sword Rebellion, leaning her up against the wall rather than hitched on his back. He sat in the chair across from the other man, giving no further information on why he would even be up at this hour. "You look like you had a rough night." Dante joked with him, turning the conversation away from himself intentionally. Nero did look tired, but it was amazing how much better he looked since Thursday. He almost looked normal again, still a little skinnier than before, but nevertheless otherwise normal.

"Yeah, kinda. Mission kept me out until one in the morning." Blinking as he adjusted his eye to seeing again after having rubbed it, he took notice of how incredibly exhausted the older man looked. He didn't look bad per say, just very, very tired. "What about you? You don't look like you've gotten any sleep lately."

"No, I've been getting a lot of late night missions these past couple days too." Dante straight up lied, since it was easier to lie than to admit he's been having nightmares. That'd be too big of a blow to his ego. "Where is everyone?" He quickly changed the subject.

"Oh, you got here right at the time in the morning when everybody's either off on a mission or asleep."

"And you?"

"I get Sunday's off for now."

"Then why not get some more sleep?" Dante questioned.

"Nah, if I sleep in today I'll be tired tomorrow when I have to wake up early again." He explained as he picked up the newspaper that Dante just now noticed had been lying open in front of him. Dante watched Nero as he presumably continued to read where he had last left off for a few seconds, before sighing heavily, to which Nero did not take notice of. At least not visibly - he just continued reading. 

"Look, kid," He began, reverting back to Nero's old nickname, though this did not seem to concern the younger. "what exactly _are_ we?" Dante finally asked, referring to what kind of a relationship they have. No point in beating around the bush anymore.

"We're friends." Nero responded coolly.

"So we're not, you know, together?" 

"You can date a friend." He told him vaguely, still reading his newspaper as he did.

"Then, uh…" Dante paused. "Is that what we are?"

"Friends who're dating?"

"Yeah."

"What do you think?" Nero asked, seemingly refusing to give him a clear answer. 

"I think we shouldn't." Dante told him, his heartbeat slightly elevated as he anxiously waited for Nero's possibly angry response. 

"Getting cold feet already, huh?" He questioned. Nero didn't appear to be taking him seriously, as he still looked rather unaffected by Dante's words and had been continuing to read the paper the entire time.

"C'mon, I'm being serious." Dante told him, adding in a bit more of a serious tone to his voice to support his claim. 

"Oh, are you?" Nero rhetorically questioned before placing the newspaper down, giving Dante his full attention. "Tell me why you think that then, why we shouldn't date."

"Well," Dante said as he exhaled loudly "I'm too old for you, for one thing." Skeptically, Nero raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.

"Really? You mean to tell me that, before you slept with a woman, you'd ID her to make sure she was in your age group?"

"Uh, well, no… But-" "And what's the youngest age of somebody you've slept with in the past few years?" Nero interrupted him.

"Twenty-five." Dante said confidently. As Nero's only response to him was to give him a very unamused look, his eyes half lidded as he did so, Dante spoke again. "…Would you believe twenty then?" 

"Dante." Nero said sternly, still not believing him. Sighing, said man responded.

"Okay, fine, you got me. Eighteen. I didn't know until after though.." He gave in. 

"Exactly. And how old were you then?"

"Thirty-one…" To this, Nero smirked victoriously.

"So what's the big deal about me being nineteen then?" He asked.

"I don't know, it'd just be weird for somebody my age to date somebody who's still a teenager." Dante lied. He didn't actually really care that much about Nero's age, other than it meant Nero was still smoking hot with plenty more years of being that way, but he didn't want to go through the hassle of explaining the real reason why he can't date him, nor anybody else. 

"Well, I turn twenty in a week, if that makes you feel any better." Nero told him, effectively shooting down Dante's excuse.

"Okay, then…" Dante said as he quickly thought up a new excuse "then it won't work out because we live too far apart. Fortuna isn't exactly a few minutes away from Capulet City, you know." Shrugging this off, Nero responded.

"It's not that hard to make up a schedule were you come here and I can go over there."

"Well what if, when you come over, you see that my shop is a mess and you don't want to be with somebody as messy as me?" 

"I'm not afraid to do some cleaning." Nero told him. Stumped, Dante started to quickly look around the room as he tried to formulate a new reason for why they shouldn't be together. "C'mon, tell me what the real problem is now." Focusing his attention on Nero for a few seconds, Dante then sighed and averted his eyes from him once more.

"I just don't think it's a good idea." He told him, unable to bring himself to tell Nero the truth. Even if he did tell him, Nero wouldn't take him seriously. He'd just go off about how he's not a kid, that he can take care of himself, that he wouldn't get killed.. Yes, he's a strong guy and definitely has the potential to get stronger, but he just doesn't have enough experience to go up against higher ranked demons yet. After all, Nero struggled enough just going up against Dante when they first met, and even then Dante never really seriously fought him.

"Don't you think you're blowing this outta proportions?" Nero asked him, but then elaborated before Dante could respond. "I mean, it's not like we'd be getting married tomorrow. The whole concept of 'dating' is that you're supposed to be figuring out how well you get along with the other person. It's nothing permanent. For all you know we might only last a few days before we're wanting to kill each other." Picking up the newspaper he had laid down before, Nero began reading again, figuring the conversation was over with now.

"Yeah, maybe," Dante sighed "I just don't want anybody to get hurt." Though he said 'anybody', Nero seemed to believe he must mean him.

"If you don't want to hurt me, then don't get pregnant with another man's child." He said with a half-smile, indicating that he was joking, using his own recent experience as the joke. 

"Hmm…" Dante pretended as though he was seriously thinking it over "Well, it'll be tough, but I'll try my best not to." He smirked at him.

"Then I don't see why you're freaking out about this." He said before tossing the paper over onto the table area in front of Dante, standing up out of his chair while doing so. "The comics are on the third page. I gotta go run some errands." 

"I thought you said this was your day off?" He said as he grabbed up the paper, opening it and flipping over a couple pages.

"It is. But it's not for the Order, just got some personal stuff to take care of." Nero explained without going into further detail. 

"Have fun with that then." Dante idly said as he began reading the newspaper's comics. Having been distracted from reading about the comedic antics of Snippy and Joe, it was only after he had finished reading, and after Nero had already been long gone, that Dante realized he still didn't fully know whether they were actually dating or if Nero is just toying with the idea of them dating. Or maybe Nero's just testing him. Though, he certainly isn't treating him any differently, and once you date somebody you're supposed to be nicer around them, right? It doesn't matter either way. He may of joked a bit at the end of their conversation, which probably didn't help Nero to believe he was being serious… But he meant what he said before. Him being in a relationship just isn't a good idea. Not with Nero and not with anybody else. 

\---------------------------------------------

The time is approximately 11:28am.

"I'm just saying," Nero's approaching voice woke up Dante, as he had been previously nodding off as he sat on one of the comfy couch's in the headquarter's living room areas, his feet impolitely propped up on the coffee table in front of him "you shouldn't of taken a bet that you knew you couldn't do." Straightening his neck up off of the back of the couch, uncrossing his arms off of his chest to rub the back of his now sore neck and grimacing as he did so, Dante heard Jack's voice respond. 

"You know I'm a risk taker." 

"Being stupid and being a risk taker are two different things." Nero scoffed, his voice and the sound of both his and Jack's boots coming rapidly closer. 

"Eh, it's not so bad. I think I look good, don't you?" Jack questioned as both he and Nero rounded the corner, through the living room's entrance and into the room. Despite knowing that they were now in the same room as him, Dante did not immediately look over at them, instead being too preoccupied with rubbing his neck still, his eyes being closed as he did so. He did, however, open them once he heard the sound of the two of them sitting down on a couch. You see, this living room had three couches, each one situated around the room's TV, so that many people may comfortably watch the television without squishing onto one couch. Dante noticed - to his relief - that Nero chose not to sit next to him, that in fact he completely separated himself from Dante by sitting on a different couch from him. This is good. Nero's not attempting to be even physically close to him, like normal. Maybe he's just been overreacting about this whole thing, meanwhile Nero never even considered it… 

Looking over at Jack, whom he deduced was sitting on the third couch as he did not feel somebody sit next to him nor did he see Jack sitting next to Nero, he saw that the man looked… different. On his face were several different kinds of makeup, of which Dante did not know the names of other than "mascara" and "eyeliner", combined together to make Jack's face appear very womanly. Not that he looked bad - in fact, he looked quite pretty, as there was enough make up caked on him to completely cover his masculine traits. The odd sight caused Dante to questioningly raise an eyebrow as he slightly smirked in amusement.

"I think you look like a woman." Nero teased him.

"I'll take that as a yes." Jack said as he proudly sported a smile on his heavily make uped face.

"I guess bets are made around here pretty often, eh?" Dante questioned, turning his gaze back over to Nero. He remembered that day when Nero had also lost a bet and had to parade around in short shorts as a result.

"Yeah, most of the missions now-a-days are pretty routine and boring, so we keep it interesting by making bets on whether we can finish a mission under a certain time, or whether we can finish enough missions in one day, or whatever. If somebody accepts a bet, most of the Order members will put money on whether or not the person can actually do the task they're betting on. If the person completes the task, they get…. Uh…. What was it, 10% of all the money bet on them?" Nero asked Jack.

"25% I believe."

"Okay, 25% of the money bet on them," Nero corrected "and the rest gets split among the ones who bet the person could do it. If you lose a bet, the money goes to the ones who bet against you, and you get no cut of the money. Some of these bets also make you do something stupid or embarrassing if you lose." 

"You take many bets?" Dante asked curiously. 

"I use to.." Nero said vaguely.

"Yeah, he's been chickening out ever since he had to wax his legs after losing that one bet." Jack said, despite Nero's threatening glare. "By the way, did your leg hair finally grow back?" He teased.

"Yeah… most of it." Nero muttered the last part, though Jack still heard apparently, as he then began laughing at poor Nero.

\---------------------  
The time is now 9:48 in the evening.

"I'm gonna go ahead and call it a night." Dante announced as he tiredly exhaled. For the past few hours, him, Willow, and Nero had been watching a couple movies while snacking on some buttery popcorn. As he doesn't get Sunday's off, Jack had been gone since noon today, and as far as Dante knew, still wouldn't be back for a couple more hours. For their first movie of the night, Willow had tried to put on some cheesy romantic, borderline chick flick, film that Dante had never heard of before and by this point had already forgotten its name, though he could've sworn it had "love" or "lovers" in the title. Though Dante didn't mind one way or another what movies they watched, they were forced to switch to a different movie only twenty minutes in, due to Nero being very vocal about how much he disliked the cheesiness of the film. Since then they've been watching either comedies or action based films, which Willow correctly assumed Nero wouldn't mind watching

"The movie isn't over yet though." Willow pointed out, though he was too engrossed in the screen to actually look over at the other man.

"Yeah, I know the ending though. I've seen this movie before." Dante said as he stood up off the couch, stretching out his arms above his head as he did so. A few of his joints popped as he did so - loud enough for him to hear but luckily soft enough so that nobody else heard. He allowed his arms to fall back down to his sides as he mentally joked with himself about his 'old age'. Glancing over at Nero, who at some point had fallen asleep, he chuckled softly with a brief, small smile. His arms were loosely crossed across his chest, with the upper portion of his body slightly slumped over to the side, and his head having lulled into a likely uncomfortable angle. He must've fallen asleep a while ago too, as his devil bringer was only very dimly glowing, which usually either means he's weak from an injury or in a deep state of sleep. "Must be past the kid's bedtime, huh?" He joked as he walked behind the couch Nero is sitting in. Curious as to why Dante would've said this, Willow glanced over at the slumbering hunter momentarily.

"Oh, yeah. Normally he goes to bed at promptly 9:30 every day." He explained. "He can usually stay up until at least midnight before he starts passing out, but I guess he dozed off since we turned off the lights." Dante, who shook his head slightly at the younger man, firmly placed his hand onto Nero's left shoulder.

"Hey, kid, wake up!" He said harshly yet softly. Waking with a start due to this rude awakening, Nero's head snapped back upright, as did the rest of his body, as he sharply inhaled. Even his devil bringer's glow, which generally wouldn't even noticeable if the room was lit, suddenly when from being dull to radiating a shining blue light for a few moments.

"Dammit Dante! The hell's wrong with you!" Nero irritatedly groaned upon looking back and realizing who the source of this disturbance was. To further convey his disapproval of what Dante did, he reached behind himself and slapped Dante's side with his open hand, as that was the worst he could do to him without having to waste more energy by turning around or standing up. Though Nero probably thought he must've hit him pretty good, in reality his sleepy state made it to where Dante would qualify his 'hit' as being more of a soft slap to his side, causing said man to simply smirk at the sleepy teenager rather than retaliate. 

"C'mon, time to go to bed." Dante verbally prodded him as he watched him slowly coming back into consciousness.

"What're you, my mother?" 

"Oh no, I don't have the hips for that." He retorted. Nero glanced back at the smirking man, briefly giving him an unimpressed stare before scoffing and standing up off of the couch. 

"I suppose I should get to bed." Nero gave in as he tiredly walked around the couch, towards the general direction of his room. Upon seeing the elder following behind him, which only took him a few steps in before he noticed, Nero immediately stopped and turned around, giving him a questioning look. This caused Dante to abruptly stop. "Can I help you?" He said rhetorically.

"I-I was headed to bed too." Dante replied, stuttering more out of being unexpectedly questioned than nervousness.

"Hm." Nero hummed, eyeing him skeptically before turning back around, returning to his route towards his room. Dante briefly stood where he was at before inevitably following him. As Nero, of course, reached the room first, he was the first one in. By the time Dante had caught up, which really only took a few seconds, Nero was in the process of shutting the room's bathroom door behind himself. Ah, yes, that definitely gives Dante his answer. Before, Nero would just make him either look away or close his eyes when he was changing into his sleep clothes. Now he's going so far as to put a door between them before he changes his clothes, and if Dante heard right, and he generally does, he also heard the faint clicking of the door also being locked by its occupant. Couples always become less self-conscious around each other, but yet Nero's only gotten worse. There's no way he considers them to be dating then.

Satisfied that he now has the answer he's been looking for, feeling both relieved and a bit disappointed, Dante flipped off the light switch and flopped down onto his bed on his back. Allowing his more than exhausted mind and body to relax for the day, as both had been fighting him for rest all day, he felt his eyes slowly shutting. Finally, after these awful past few nights, he is going to get the good night's sleep he desperately needs. He can ponder over if he made the right decision and longingly wonder about what could've been later, right now he just needs some damn sleep! In fact, he must've drifted off in that sort amount of time, as the sound of the bathroom door opening woke him back up again. Looking over at Nero as he strolled out of the bathroom, he noticed he was in his usual sleep attire; a plain colored short sleeve shirt with equally plain sleep pants. Nero paid him no attention though, as he made a beeline for his own bed. His back facing Dante, he began peeling back his bed's sheets and covers. Figuring he won't be noticed if he's quick enough, Dante stealthily got back up and began stripping down to his underwear as fast as he could. Luckily for him, he was not noticed, as Nero was only just beginning to turn around to sit down in his bed as Dante crawled under the covers of his own bed. He watched Nero lay down and situate himself underneath the sheets as he himself got comfortable, and just like that, the kid was out like a light bulb within seconds. Chuckling a bit to himself over Nero's apparent exhaustion, he found that he too is quickly fading into slumber. 

\---------------------

"Dante? Dante, are you awake?" He heard a fuzzy, yet familiar voice speak. As he opened his eyes, his sight being clouded as well at first, he saw Nero standing in front of him next to his bed, slightly bent over towards him so that Dante could hear him better.  
He had no idea what time it is, but it must be pretty late.

"Huh?" Dante grumbled as he slightly propped himself up with his elbow, as he had been sleeping on his side.

"You were having a nightmare." He informed him.

"What?" He looked up at him groggily, his eyes still a bit squinted from being suddenly reopened. "Why do you say that?" 

"Well, you've got buckets of sweat on you," Dante quickly glanced down at his own body to confirm Nero's accusation, and yes, he was indeed quite sweaty "and you were making lots of noise." 

"Noise? What kind of noise?" Dante questioned as he peered back up at him. 

"You were kicking in your sleep, mumbling, fidgeting a lot." Nero listed off. 

"Nah… nonsense, I don't have nightmares." He concluded with perceived confidence, though he knew full well Nero was 99.99% likely of being right. He couldn't remember what he was dreaming about though, which he has occasionally experienced before during these past few nights, but considering he still felt just as tired as when he went to bed, it was pretty clear to him that the nightmares he's been having haven't gone away. But why? He made sure there was nothing going on between him and Nero anymore. What else could he possibly do? What is it now that his mind is trying to tell him?! 

"Riiight." Nero elongated his speech so that Dante could know that he knew he was bullshitting him, as if the look he was giving Dante wasn't enough. "Scoot over, tough guy." He told him as he placed a blanket and pillow next to Dante, on top of the covers.

"What do ya got there?" Dante questioned as he obliged by his request, scooting backwards to the far left of the bed.

"A pillow and blanket." He replied plainly.

"Well yeah, but what are you gonna do with those?"

"Well, you see, I know what's been going on now. You didn't have a mission last night." Nero said as he started to situate his pillow and blanket on the bed. "I thought that it was weird that even a late night mission would make you this tired, but it makes sense now. You've been having nightmares."

"No, Nero, I told you I'm fine." He insisted with a chuckle. 

"No you're not." Nero said firmly. "Look, I use to have these terrible nightmares when I was a kid." He began, and Dante, intrigued, politely listened to him. "And every-so-often, I would get these… plagues. Just one nightmare right after the next, for several days." He paused briefly. "One night, during one of these nightmare episodes, Credo heard me in my room in the middle of the night. Long story short, he fell asleep next to me, reading me some stupid kid story out of a book." Nero continued to speak as he laid down on the right side of the bed, on his side facing Dante, underneath the blanket but above the covers. Clearly he didn't trust Dante enough to turn his back to him. "And that night I stopped having nightmares. Well, for a while that is, but that's when I learned the best cure to bad dreams."

"Having somebody read you a bedtime story?" Dante skeptically questioned.

"No." Nero responded as he laid his head down on a different pillow than the one he brought, the second pillow that Dante's bed had. "You see, most people have nightmares that comes from their fears, or their insecurities, and sometimes just having somebody they know sleeping next to them can comfort them enough to where those things don't matter anymore." 

"So you're comforting me then?" He smirked. Okay, this is still acceptable, right? Friends comfort friends all the time, and sometimes sleep in the same bed together. No big deal.

"To a point." Nero said just before he placed the pillow he had brought over in between them, forcing them to stay at least a foot away from each other. "This is to help you keep your hands to yourself." 

"I was going to say the same for you." Dante teased, to which Nero rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Yeah yeah, you're irresistible," he said in a heavily fake tone "now shut your eyes and go to sleep." he demanded with furrowed, serious eyes. 

"Okay, okay, no need to tell me twice." As he joked, Dante obliged by Nero's request and shut his eyes. Just like before, he felt himself quickly falling asleep soon after. However, after about ten seconds, he felt Nero shifting in his position just enough to cause Dante to stir back to life. Curious, he reopened his eyes; instantly, he regretted doing so. See, trying to emotionally drive away somebody and convince yourself you don't want to be with them is much easier when said person is always looking at you with a scolding, angry expression - something that Nero routinely does. But right now… right now he looked so… peaceful. His eyes are shut and his is face devoid of emotion, and yet he looked so calm, a look that's extremely rare on the normally vibrant, energetic kid. With him being so relaxed within such a close proximity, Dante was able to fully see all of his unaltered features. Against his better judgement, he felt compelled to observe these traits, everything from Nero's cute little perfectly pointed nose to his round, soft looking exposed left ear to his thick, yet not very effeminate eyelashes. 

It was then that Dante noticed what Nero had changed in his position. On top of the pillow was Nero's left hand and forearm neatly outstretched onto the middle of the pillow, his hand a bit lower down from being at eye level. This was likely out of habit, as Dante can recall at least a couple times where he had seen him asleep with his arm out in front of himself. He stared at the other man's arm inquisitively. Unconsciously, he felt his right hand beginning to stretch toward the pillow. He immediately stopped upon realizing and mentally reprimanded himself. But then again… when is this chance ever going to present itself again? Nero never lets Dante's hand within even a foot of his body, let alone allow him to intentionally touch his bare skin without forcing him to lose an arm. Looking at Nero's arm, it made Dante curious. Does Nero still have soft skin, or does he have rough skin like what Dante's developed over the years of fighting? Is he warm, or is he like one of those people whose skin always feels cold? It doesn't matter either way, he really shouldn't do this. They say curiosity killed the cat, and Dante will certainly be mauled if he's caught.

He debated with himself for a few minutes, going back and forth on the pro's and con's that his decision would have. In the end, his curiosity prevailed once more. He had to know. Allowing his right arm to finally resume its stretch towards the other's arm, being very mindful of his movements so he would not wake the arm's owner, he carefully, and slowly, placed his hand on top of the other man's forearm. Quickly looking up to make sure there wasn't a pair of furious eyes staring at him beforehand, he then curled his fingers around Nero's forearm, solidifying his grip. Maybe this was just the cheesy romance film they briefly saw earlier talking, but at that moment, Dante felt… warmer. Not because Nero was warmer; he just suddenly felt this odd rush of comforting warmth stretch out across his body. Glancing back up at the blissfully unaware young man's face, Dante realized something. He couldn't go through with this. He can't keep trying to push him away, not when it's this hard fighting himself to do so and not when he's so incredibly exhausted anyways. He knows how this will likely end - with death and unbelievable amounts of misery for both parties - but he just couldn't do it. He has a chance at maybe, just maybe, being a bit happier in his life, even for just a little bit, why shouldn't he take the opportunity, instead of being afraid of what could happen? Is he being selfish? ….No, this is different. This isn't the same situation that his parents were in - his father should've known that their mother would not of been able to survive an attack, especially not with him gone. No, Nero is a capable fighter, he can fend off most threats. He'll be okay. With some time and experience, he may even reach the same level of skill as Dante, and by then only the best of the best will be able to harm him. Dante just has to keep him safe until he reaches that point.

Eventually, the tired, worn out devil hunter fell asleep as he was mentally reassuring himself that everything will be okay - that Nero will not end up dying because of him. In doing so, he had forgotten to do one very important thing being succumbing to sleep: Taking his hand off of the kid's forearm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Reference to DMC 3, when Beowulf commented that he did not know there was two Son's of Sparda, as he was blinded and had to rely on scent. Which, being identical twins, their scents would've been the same. This leads me to believe nobody in the underworld knew of the second son before this, and likely the unknown son was Dante, as Vergil had made his presence clear to the underworld by then. This would explain why none of the demons found him after Eva had hidden him away when they were 8, since the demons had already found Vergil, they would've had no reason to believe they needed to look for another son, thus sparing Dante.
> 
>    
> A new chapter right before the start of the new year. Dante's flip flopping on whether he should or shouldn't try being with Nero, but I can't blame him. After what happened to his mother and brother due to their ties to Sparda, and the nightmares he was having, I'd be pretty indecisive on what to do too. Hopefully he'll live to see tomorrow though, despite his non-consenting hand being on Nero's arm. Have a happy new year and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	22. Baby Steps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I would just like to say (again) that I appreciate everybody's support and I hope you all enjoy this chapter and the ones to come! Please don't forget to leave me a review, as I cannot know if I did well or if I need improvement otherwise!
> 
> Also, I would like to add that, with the addition of this chapter, this story is now at 179 pages long!

Opening his previously tightly sealed shut eyes for the first time today, Dante slowly stirred back to life. Despite being a bit sore from unintentionally staying in the exact same position while he was sleeping, he quickly noticed just how refreshed he felt. He had _finally_ managed to peacefully sleep through the entire night. Well, actually, if the clock that's on the nightstand beside him is correct, he also slept through the morning too. Maybe the kid was right… Perhaps he just needed the so-called 'comforting warmth' of another human sleeping beside him to cure his previously-never-ending night terrors? Or, it could be the fact that he has accepted what may - or may not - happen between him and Nero, causing his mind to now be at peace rather than constantly fighting with itself, despite knowing the risks of him being involved with somebody. In the end, it didn't really matter either way and Dante didn't much care to speculate on why he was able to suddenly sleep again. All that he cares about is that he is finally back to normal.

As he rolled onto his back, causing the well-used mattress's springs to creak from his shift in weight, Dante stretched out his arms above his head, giving his muscles the chance to get used to being active again after resting for so long. Taking a good two and a half minutes to slowly stretch out the other parts of his body, easing the soreness in his body, Dante then peered over to where Nero slept last night, only to see that side of the bed was predictably empty. With it being 12:14 in the afternoon, Nero likely got up and left headquarters a few hours ago and so Dante had no expectation of seeing him still in bed. Normally, Nero would at least try to wake up Dante in an always failed attempt to make him get out of bed with him as he nagged the man about his poor sleep schedule, but Dante couldn't remember him doing so this morning. Either Nero is feeling a bit nice today, or Dante simply couldn't be forced awake from his slumber at eight in the morning. Looking up at the plain white ceiling, he draped his left arm over his stomach and watched the somehow-still-operable old fashioned ceiling fan spin in slow circles, noticing how the movement made the fan itself wobble ever so slightly. This constant, rhythmic movement in the silent room began to lull Dante back into sleep as he laid in the old, but still comfortable, bed, even though he was no longer tired. Moments later, the sound of something falling onto the ceramic bathroom floor connected to the bedroom jolted Dante awake again, inadvertently causing him to sharply inhale from the unexpected loud noise. This sound was a very specific and recognizable sound, one that is soft, not very sharp, but can still cause a person's heart to race with anxiety - it was the sound of a cell phone hitting the ground.

"Sorry." Nero's voice echoed from the bathroom, as well as it could be heard that the phone was being retrieved from the ground. "I was trying to be quiet." He added as he walked out of the bathroom and towards his own bed, with his phone in hand. 

"Well you sure did do a good job. I didn't know you were even here." Dante informed him with a smile as he sat up in his bed, running his hands through his hair so to somewhat fix his messy bedhead. He figured now is as good of time as any to start the process of getting up, as Nero is unlikely to let him fall back to sleep now that he knows Dante's awake. Nero just smirked for a moment, perhaps praising his own sneaking ability in his mind, as he sat down on the edge of his own bed, tossing his phone to his side. Dante, having his back facing Nero, swung his legs off of the side of the bed. He did not see Nero observing his unclothed back as he did so, nor did he notice Nero look away with troubled confusion, before hesitantly looking at his devil bringer. Extending his talon-like fingers that had been previously balled up into a tight fist, Nero rotated his demonic arm so that it's underside is visible. For a while, he just observed his own limb, as he has done so many times before. He understood and somewhat accepted that this thing was now a part of him, but, anatomically speaking, he didn't understand it. In an attempt to understand his new arm better, and perhaps use it more effectively in battle, he had looked through various anatomical books of known demons, hoping to find something similar to his devil bringer that may answer some of his questions. But there was nothing. A few things vaguely similar, but upon further inspection, were completely different from his own arm as far as abilities go. 

Balling his fingers back into a fist, Nero stood up suddenly from his bed, his human arm to his side and his devil bringer outstretched in front his body. "I want to see it." He demanded with a dead serious expression. Dante, who had just put on his trench coat, the final piece of clothing that was missing from his body as he had been dressing himself while Nero observed his devil bringer, looked back at him with confusion. 

"Huh?" He questioned as he turned to face him.

"I want to see it." Nero repeated with the same serious tone, offering no further explanation other than to open his hand as he out reached his devil bringer slightly towards Dante. Looking down at the man's arm, Dante became more confused as he stared at his arm for a few seconds, desperately trying to figure out what Nero means. Suddenly, his eyes briefly became wide as he believed he figured out the answer.

"Aw c'mon, you couldn't of asked me _before_ I put on clothes?" Dante asked as he looked up at him, a small smirk on his face. Nero responded in a tone that matched his now confused expression.

"You.. Have to be naked to trigger?" He asked, hesitating a bit to add to his questioning tone. 

" _Ohhh, that's_ what you meant!" Dante said as he quickly lost his smirk as he now realized what Nero wanted from him. "Okay, yeah, that makes more sense.." he said to himself in a hushed tone. "What's gotten into you then? Why do you want to see my devil trigger all of a sudden?" He said before Nero had the chance to question Dante on what he thought he meant, seeing that Nero had begun to open his mouth as if to question him just before Dante interrupted.

"Curiosity." He replied with a nonchalant shrug moments later, as he seriously did not know what Dante's devil trigger looked like, nor has he seen his own since he has not been able to fully trigger yet, other than seeing what it may look like thanks to his permanently disfigured arm. Looking around briefly at nothing in particular as he thought, Dante turned his attention back to Nero just before replying.

"….Are you really sure you want to see it though?" He questioned with a raised eyebrow, not because he had an aversion to showing him, but because it was a strange request to him - most people very much prefer to never see his other side. 

"Yeah." Nero said confidently, before skeptically eyeing Dante moments later. "Why? Are you not able to do it?"

"What? Oh, no, I can, it's just-" "It's just you don't want to?" Nero interrupted him.

"Well, I mean, it's not exactly fun to do." Dante said, pausing briefly. "It takes a lot of energy to trigger. I can do it though, if you want me to." He added that last part quickly. "But really, what's with the sudden curiosity?"

"What's with you delaying showing me?" Nero retorted, clearly avoiding his question. 

"Okay, okay." Dante chuckled. He knows he won't get an answer from Nero unless he willingly gives it up - berating him about it will do no good. Crossing his arms, he very briefly closed his eyes and slightly tilted his head down, so he may completely focus on triggering in a safe manner. A mere moment later, a large wind-blowing force emanated from his body for a second, signifying his official transformation into his less-than-human form. The force was enough to ruffle Nero's hair as the wind swept past him, as well as the tail of his coat and his other loose clothes. Just like that, the white haired, human man who once seemed to stand before Nero was seemingly gone - instead, he was replaced by a red and black demon with vague reptilian traits. Most notably, there was what looked to be a wide, large crack in his chest that glowed a magnificent yellowish orange bright enough to where Dante's crossed arms could not completely cover the light emanating from him. Much smaller, less bright veins running down his legs glowed as well. Some of these radiating, even smaller veins were found on other parts of his body, such as his forearms. Many spikes protruded from his shoulders, upper and lower arms, as well as his chest, which added to his intimidating reptilian appearance. Of course, his face was completely indistinguishable. His bright cloudy blue eyes replaced with red, glowing eyes that were so bright that it appeared he had no pupils or iris, instead having just two brightly red silts on his face. There were even ridged spikes along his jawline. Interestingly, the rest of his body was fairly humanoid in form, except for his feet; his feet now were composed of three, long, large, clawed toes, their appearance resembling that of a long-extinct dinosaur. 

"Ta-da!" Dante said as he uncrossed his arms and made a presentative gesture, his voice still distinguishable despite being noticeably altered. 

"So, uh… this is what you actually look like?" Nero questioned, not out of repulsion, but out of genuine curiosity as he continued to observe the intricate details along the other's new body. He did not make an attempt to approach him, however.

"Well… I wouldn't say I _actually_ look like this. This is just what I can turn into." Noticing Nero's visible curiosity but also his obvious hesitancy to approach him, Dante continued. "You can come on over," he chuckled "I'm not going to turn rabid or anything." Looking him in the eye, as if doing so will somehow tell him if Dante is lying or not, Nero decided to go ahead and slowly, but cautiously, go towards Dante. His lack of trust was expected by Dante; the kid barely trusts himself with his own powers, let alone trusting somebody just as, if not more, powerful than him. 

"So, you're still you then? Like, you don't get mad and forget who you are or anything?" He asked, a bit concerned as he continued his slow approach. This question of his didn't seem to be out of concern that Dante is still himself, but rather than when the day comes that Nero fully triggers, he is concerned that he will still be himself. 

"No, I'm not the hulk." Dante joked with a smirk as Nero stopped in front of him. "You'll still be the same person when you trigger, you'll just be a stronger you. Make sense?" He questioned rhetorically before continuing. "But usually you won't trigger unless you're in a stressful situation, like in an intense fight or if you take a bad hit. Triggering is your body's 'natural' defense against enemies." 

"But you don't have to force yourself to trigger in a fight, right?"

"Nah, not usually."

"Then why'd you have to close your eyes to trigger just now?" Nero questioned.

"Oh, that's because I didn't want to hurt you." Pausing, but seeing Nero's bewilderment, he continued. "You remember when I said it takes a lot of energy to trigger?" Nero nodded. "Well, some of that energy gets released out of the body. That energy is what caused that gust of air, you see. If you're not careful, you'll release too much energy, which doesn't hurt you, but it'll hurt anything near you." Dante told him smartly. "It's pretty useful in battle though." He added. 

"What if I accidentally trigger? I don't want to hurt the people around me." Nero looked to be pretty concerned about this new information - and for good reason. 

"You'll really only 'accidentally' trigger during battle, when nobody friendly is around anyways." He explained. "Don't worry, controlling when you'll trigger is something you'll learn over time. Though, I still slip up sometimes." Dante admitted.

"You? The almighty Son of Sparda, _slipping up_?" Nero teased, smirking slightly.

"Well.. I am human, after all. Can't expect me to be _completely_ perfect." He said with an ironic smirk, unintentionally showing a hint of the jagged, sharp teeth he has behind his lips.

"Yeah I can see that." Nero said, retaining his teasing half-smile as he mockingly looked up and down at Dante's demonic, reptilian body, to which Dante simply widened his smirk. A few moments later, he glanced back up at Dante. "You seem like you know a lot about this." Nero speculated. "What can you tell me about my other form then?" 

"What about it?" 

"Like… your uh, hide," Nero hesitated briefly, unsure if a demon's skin is considered 'skin' or 'hide' "looks smooth." Dante's skin did indeed _look_ smooth, but Nero wasn't about to go testing out that theory by touching on him. He held up his own demonic arm, looking at it as he spoke again. "But mine is rough." Nero looked up at Dante once more. "Why is that? What's the advantage of having smooth or rough hide?"

"Well," Dante began, gently grabbing Nero's wrist so that he may hold his arm in place as his other hand examined Nero's devil arm. Nero was subtlety startled by this touch; not only do most people not touch this arm, and so feeling somebody else unexpectedly touching his devil bringer was a bit surprising, but also the feeling of somebody with the same demonic appendage, and therefore the same texture, as his own touching his devil arm was quite new to him. "our triggers will look different for the same reason two different people might have different eye color, or hair color. Genetics." Nero silently listened. "And the characteristics of your trigger is based on what you're built for - also controlled by genetics."

"What's that supposed to mean? 'The characteristics'?" He asked as he peered down at his devil bringer.

"Just take a look at me." Dante told him, and Nero did so, but still didn't understand what he was talking about. "I'm clearly not built to take a lot of blows." With Nero looking up at him in confusion, Dante continued. "Sure, I have these spikes along parts of my body for some protection, but my hide is not very thick."

"It's not?" Nero questioned. 

"Nope. Small things like knives won't cut through, but a sword definitely will." He explained, looking up at Nero. "That's because I'm built for speed, not for protection. My skin is smooth to reduce friction from the air when I'm moving, which makes me faster. Having a thick layer of skin would just weigh me down and slow my movement." Looking back down at Nero's devil arm, flipping his arm onto its underside as he examined it, Dante spoke again. "Now you," he said before exhaling in a way that insinuates he's impressed "you look like you'll be built pretty much like a tank."

"Really?" Nero questioned with curious interest, looking down at his arm so he may see what made Dante think that.

"Oh yeah. See how thick your hide is?" He said as he tried to pick at Nero's skin with one of his talon-like fingers, though he was unsuccessful in even making the slightest of a scratch and despite how sharp his fingertip looks, Nero clearly showed no signs of being in any sort of discomfort or pain. "Yup, you'd be able to withstand lots of hits, but you won't be very faster. I bet only Yamato is capable of cutting through this skin." He added on that last bit after remembering that, back during The Savior disaster, Yamato was able to cleanly stab through Nero's arm. This wasn't very surprising though, as Dante has never seen Yamato be unable to cut though something. "But I'm sure you already knew that." 

"No..? Why would I?" Nero said questioningly as he looked back up at the demon.

"Don't you remember when you held up this arm to block Rebellion?" Dante looked up at him, referring back to during their first fight, also during The Savior event, when Nero chose to hold up his devil arm to block Dante's sword, rather than moving away. 

"Oh, yeah," Nero said as he remembered "but I did that because I didn't think I had enough time to escape. I figured it'd be better if you cut open my arm instead of my face." He chuckled before speaking again. "It kinda just so happened that Rebellion got stuck in my arm, but I definitely didn't know that was going to happen."

"Guess you just got lucky then, huh?" Dante teased, smirking as he detriggered back into a human form again.

"Yeah, I suppose so." He said blandly as he continued looking at his arm, perhaps with a bit of discontent. Moments later, letting go of Nero's arm as he did so, Dante spoke up again as he met the young man's gaze.

"Unfortunately that's 'bout all I can tell you." He said with a bit of remorse that he can't help the young man much more. He knew now why Nero wanted to see his trigger - not because he was curious of what Dante's trigger looked like, but to see what his own trigger may look like. Perhaps out of pure curiosity or maybe because he's afraid his trigger, a seemingly monstrous change in physical form, will negatively affect his personality and who he is as a person. Oh yes, Dante knows well the troubles that Nero is going through right now. After seeing what was becoming of his brother, in his youth he too was worried about what would happen to who he is once the devil inside him was fully awoken. Would he still be the same person? Would the newfound strength make him power hungry, like his ill-fated brother? What would he be capable of? Worst of all, would he be unable to control his inner demon and the innocent people around him would end up suffering at his hands? It wasn't until he was forced to fully trigger during his fighting with Vergil that he realized he was afraid for nothing, that it is possible to control and suppress his other side, if need be, and that so long as he stays true to who he always has been, no devil can change him, not even the one inside of him. 

"That's okay." Nero said, looking up at him with a small smile as he let his arm go back down to his side. "I didn’t think you’d be able to tell much from just one demonic arm anyways." Dante smiled at him for a few seconds, which Nero reciprocated, since he had nothing more to say, before Dante looked over at the clock beside his bed so he may know what time it is now.

"Have you had lunch yet? I'm starving." He questioned, retaining a small bit of his smile as he looked back over at Nero.

"No, I haven't," he paused "But I'm supposed to go meet Kyrie for lunch here in a bit." Nero said as he walked around Dante, towards the bathroom.

"Kyrie?" Dante rhetorically questioned, his smile fading into disappointment as he turned around to face him again, though Nero didn't know this as he had his back to him. 

"Yeah. I need to talk to her about some things." Nero said, his tone mellow, perhaps even a bit somber, as he grabbed out his hairbrush from the cabinet above the sink. 

"Oh, well, uh…" Dante stuttered. "I can always just grab something here then. No big deal." He said casually. 

"I can bring something back for you." He offered as he brushed his hair, though it wasn't particularly messy, looking into the mirror as he did so.

"Nah that's alright, I'll be fine." Dante said as he sat down on the edge of his bed, his hands resting on his knees.

"Alright, if you insist." Nero said as he placed his brush back in its appropriate spot. "I should be back in about an hour." He said as he turned towards Dante, leaning up against the bathroom's doorway. "Try to be good and not get into trouble while I'm gone, alright?" He teased, though Dante has never done anything bad when Nero leaves. Smirking, Dante responded.

"I'll be on my best behavior." He promised with fake cheerfulness. Smiling at him briefly, Nero stopped leaning on the bathroom doorway and headed to the door that leads to the hallway. However, after only making a few steps, he was stopped by Dante's voice. 

"Nero… I know this sounds cheesy, but.. Just.." Dante sighed heavily. "Just don't forget that you are who you chose to be." He told him solemnly, his smirk replaced with a serious expression. Nero, though, just looked at him, a bit confused, hoping Dante would further explain this sentiment. "I think you already have experienced some of this, since you have already partially triggered before, but once the demon inside you wakes up," he said to him "completely," he added for emphasis "you'll find that you will have to make a choice." Slowly turning towards Dante so to give him his full attention, Nero silently listened to him. "Because, after you trigger for the first time, you'll find that you will have this little voice in the back of your head. A voice that says you need more."

"More what?" He asked uncharacteristically quietly.

"More of everything." Dante told him. "More power, more strength, more abilities.." He listed off, just to name a few things. "You have the power to choose whether or not you listen to that voice. If you ignore it, you'll always be the same person you are now." Pausing briefly, he continued. "But, if you don't ignore it… and you decide you do need more, just know that there is no turning back." He didn't want to scare the poor kid, but he figured it would be wrong to not at least warn him of what's to come. Unknown to Dante, Nero had indeed already experienced this voice, back during The Savior incident, when he first partially triggered. This voice, which Nero did not recognize as being his own, demanded that he gain more power to protect Kyrie - in fact, it demanded that he give up his humanity for said power. Though he laughed it off at first and tried to pretend it never happened, this event had been haunting him ever since. It was only this one instance that he heard this strange voice, but what scared him is that he did actually agree with the voice before detriggering. Sure, he would like to be stronger and more capable, but giving up being human just to obtain more power? That's just insane. But, yet, at the time, giving up his humanity was a price he was willing to pay for power. Previously, he had no idea why or where this voice spoke to him from, nor did he know if he'd hear it again.

"Thank you." Nero told him, smiling warmly at the other man. He seemed to look a bit relieved, probably because he now knows he isn't the only one to experience what he did - that he's not going crazy like he first thought. Dante, who had been smiling back at him, watched as Nero resumed walking towards the door. Once the young man opened the door moments later, he stopped and looked over at Dante sternly, who quickly lost his smile as a result. "And if I ever catch you touching me while I sleep again, I swear to any God that will listen that I'll tear off your arm." He threatened before swiftly leaving the room, before Dante could respond. At first a bit stricken by Nero's unexpected harshness, though now that he thinks about it he probably had it coming, as he now remembers that, unwisely, he never took his hand off the kid's arm last night. Dante then laughed off his threat, a bit amused over Nero's protective nature over his own body. Not that that was a bad thing!

Standing up off of his bed so that he may retrieve himself some food to eat, he was reminded by himself that Nero is going to have lunch with Kyrie, to talk about 'things', something he had briefly forgotten about. He didn't know what 'things' they were going to discuss, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to guess at what 'things' more than likely meant: Their relationship. As he sighed, he thought to himself how he should've seen this coming; I mean, really, the kid was head over heels for the girl. Kyrie probably had a change of heart, called him up to see if he'd be willing to talk about their relationship, and Nero, being the sucker he is, agreed. Dante couldn't deny that he was both shocked and disappointed, for several different reasons, but mostly because Nero would still be willing to date her, despite all that has happened between him and her. He had said that he was over Kyrie a few days ago, though, Dante didn't truly believe him. After all, it's hard to completely give up on your first love, no matter how much they hurt you.

\------------------------------------------------------------

About an hour and a half later.

"Hey, there you are." Nero greeted Dante as he fully opened the bedroom door, after having previously cracked it open just enough to peek inside the room. "I figured you'd be out with the others." He commented as he entered the room, referring to being out in one of the living rooms, closing the door behind him as he spoke. Dante, who is too busy watching the television sitting on top of the dresser in front of him as he laid in a relaxed position on his bed, slightly propped up by pillows, hadn't yet turned to look at him.

"Yeah, I remembered that there was a movie I wanted to see that was supposed to be on around this time." Dante lied. He had actually been feeling a bit… well, we'll just say bummed out since Nero left, knowing that he was just going to take her back, and didn't much feel like being around other people. He wasn't completely lying though, there really is a movie playing right now that he had been wanting to see for a while. Luckily for him, Nero is very much an introvert, and decided to buy himself his own television for his room here at headquarters a couple days ago, since he will be living here indefinitely and would rather not deal with the other noisy, rambunctious Order members every time he wanted to see what was on.

"When did it start?" Nero idly asked as he tossed a bag he had apparently been holding onto Dante's bed, next to him.

"Oh, uh.. About ten minutes ago I think." Dante responded as he looked over at the bag that was thrown at him. He could see that it was a plain, white bag sporting the logo of what appeared to be one of the local restaurants. "Hey, I said you didn't need to get me anything." He said, chuckling lightly, before looking up at the younger man, who had at this point entered the bathroom.

"Yeah I know." Nero said, taking off his shoes as he spoke. "It's nothing fancy, just a burger and fries. Figured it'd give you something to nibble on later." Dante, resisting the urge to make a sexual comment on 'nibbling' since they are clearly not together and so that would be an incredibly inappropriate comment for him to make, responded.

"Mm, yeah, I suppose you're right. Thanks." Grabbing up the bag, he placed it onto his nightstand for safe keeping until a time when he feels hungry enough to eat it. "So, how'd it go?" Dante questioned as he resumed watching television, resting his hands onto his stomach.

"Fine I guess." Nero replied less-than-enthusiastically, peeling off his socks as he did so. 

"Oh, so you didn't take her back then?" Dante asked with fake disinterest. 

"What?" Nero questioned sharply, stopping to look up at Dante with confusion. "Why would I take her back anyways?" He asked as he resumed taking off his last sock, though he continued to look at Dante.

"I figured that's what you two were gonna talk about." He responded, looking over at Nero in an equally confused manner. Chuckling, Nero looked down at his shoes and socks as he grabbed them up, placing the socks in a nearby hamper and his shoes in an out-of-the-way corner in the bathroom. He didn't speak as he did so, instead he waited until he was done organizing so that he may look at, and completely focus on, Dante as he spoke.

"Dante, she wanted me to help her sort out all the baby stuff." Nero said with a subtle, amused smirk as he stood in the bathroom's doorway, his arms crossed. "She's been getting really overwhelmed about it and I told her I'd help her out." He explained. "Did you really think I was going to leave you for her?"

"Leave me?" Dante questioned with uncertainty in his voice, as that phrase implies that they are indeed a couple, and Dante is still uncertain as to whether they really are together. To this, Nero sighed loudly, hung his head down, and briefly pinched the bridge of his nose to physically show how irritated he is.

"You're unbelievably thick, Dante." He said, since Dante doesn't seem to be able to understand hints - irritated that you're apparently supposed to blatantly tell him something in order for him to understand.

"So I've been told." He said. "Though… probably not in the way you're talking about." Once Nero looked up at him, he could see Dante's proud, sexually implicit smirk, to which he shot Dante a disgusted expression.

"I'm giving you a chance." Nero told him, figuring it would be best to just ignore his inappropriate comment. "And I'm not going to just walk out on you for no reason." He walked over to Dante's bed as he spoke, sitting down on the edge of his bed, his face turned towards the television screen and his back facing Dante. He wanted to join him in watching the movie, but made sure there was plenty of space between them. 

"What if I don't want a chance?" Dante inquired as he watched the television screen, though he wasn't actually paying attention to what was going on in the movie at this point.

"Do you not want a chance?" Nero questioned, looking back at Dante to see his reaction. Said man opened his mouth, as if to respond to him, then quietly closed his mouth a moment later, choosing to remain silent this time. His silence to Nero's question implied that he did want a chance, but did not want to actually say so. "Yeah, that's what I thought." Nero teased, turning to look at the television once more. Silence ensued afterward, until Dante broke the quiet a couple minutes later.

"So, then, we are 'together', right?" He asked for clarification. Nero, exhaling loudly and pausing before responding to him, perhaps because he didn't want to verbally admit to it, or perhaps he just was hoping Dante would've figured it out by now, without needing him to confirm it.

"Yes, Dante. We're together." Nero said with deep resignation. Suddenly, Nero felt an arm tightly wrap itself around his midsection, and before he had the chance to respond, he found himself quickly pulled down next to - and partially on top of - Dante, on his back. "Damn it, that doesn't mean you can touch me!" Nero shouted as he began to physically protest being held down, flailing about and shoving at the arm holding him in an attempt to get Dante to let him go. Dante, meanwhile, just laughed as he held onto Nero with ease.

"Oh c'mon, can't I get a hug?" He requested in a cute voice.

"No!" Nero responded harshly as he continued to thrash.

"Please?" Dante begged. Then, suddenly, Nero stopped thrashing so that he may look over at Dante with an angry, skeptical expression. From the angle he was pulled down from, his head ended up landing on Dante's shoulder, so he knew Dante would see him. "I promise I won't do anything." Holding up both hands, and therefore removing his hand off Nero's midsection, he continued to speak. "See my hands? They won't go anywhere you don't want them to go." Nero, however, just continued to angrily glare at him before he began sitting back up.

"I don't trust you yet." He informed him as he sat up.

"Oh c'mon, what's the point in giving me a chance if you won't actually give me a chance?" Nero, who had already sat up fully by this point, looked back over at him, now with more skepticism than rage, though he still said nothing to him. "You don't have to touch me either." Dante added.

"Okay, listen here, _pretty boy_." Nero said in a strict tone, his facial expressions not changing. Rather than making an ill-advised comment about being a pretty boy, or even smirking about it, Dante remained quiet. "I'm giving you a chance, but that does not mean I have to trust you. _Especially_ given your history." He assumed this meant his sexual history rather than his personal history. "That being said, you better wait until I'm damn good and ready before you try doing _anything_ with me. Even if it's just touching my hand." He paused to add emphasis to his words. "I'm not some woman that you can seduce with your so-called charms. Understand?" After Dante silently nodded in understanding, Nero turned back to look at the television, remaining in a sitting position. 

Well, that didn't exactly go according to plan. Dante really did just want to hold the young man as they watched the movie - with no devious intentions what-so-ever. But, then again, he really can't blame Nero for his extreme skepticism. Dante isn't exactly known for taking things slow or being able to keep his hands to himself, after all.

A couple minutes later, Dante was resigned to fact that they were going to separately watch the movie in a tense silence. Suddenly, without warning, Nero began to cautiously lay down next to him, rather than sitting up. Dante, confused by this sudden decision, turned to look at him and watched as he got himself comfortable as he laid next to him. There was still an inch of space between them, but still, they were much closer than before with Nero lying down instead of sitting up. It seems as though Nero couldn't get his head propped up comfortably enough to see the television screen though, as he kept unsuccessfully trying to put his head in various positions on his pillow, in hopes he'll be more comfortable. Finally, giving up, he looked around to see if there was another nearby pillow to place on top of his own. There was not. Thinking for a couple minutes, he sighed deeply with unwanted acceptance as he looked over at Dante's arm, he then grabbed Dante's wrist and guided his arm so that it was positioned underneath his neck. Apparently his large biceps were big enough to comfortably prop Nero's head up, so he may continue watching the T.V. screen. Nero dropped Dante's hand well away from his body, and though Dante's face held a wide smirk, he dared not to move his hand closer to the young man. 

Well, that is until a few moments later, when Nero regrabbed his wrist and strategically placed Dante's hand onto his own bicep. Due to how much care Nero put into ensuring Dante's hand was _only_ touching that part of his body, Dante took that as meaning Nero was allowing him to touch that area, but **only** that area. Despite this apparent change in heart, perhaps caused by him realizing that Dante was right, Nero clearly didn't look happy with his own decision, though that did not stop Dante from grinning with satisfied accomplishment as they continued to watch the movie on screen. It looks like their relationship will progress in slow, small baby steps - which, of course, Dante is more than okay with that. He wouldn't want to make the kid uncomfortable by going faster than Nero wanted to go, which, of course, would not end well for either one of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was made pretty much to solidify and show their relationship very slowly growing. It's not the most interesting chapter to read, but, in the real world, you don't just suddenly fall in love with and completely trust somebody you just started dating. Well, at least, you're not supposed to! I did my best to make sure that everything was as accurate as possible to the games. Such as, the whole 'triggering causes the people around you to take damage' is a real thing; in DMC3, if you triggered, nearby enemies would take damage from that odd gust of wind that happens whenever you trigger. However, in DMC4, when Dante is older and Nero doesn't have his full trigger yet, this ability isn't included. However, the bit where Dante talks about a voice that speaks to you after you fully trigger is completely speculation. I don't know how else to explain Nero's sudden personality change whenever he triggers. Besides, we all have that little voice inside our heads that tells us right from wrong, so who says that a half-devil's little voice wouldn't be more biased towards doing wrong? Oh, and yes, Dante initially thought Nero wanted to see his 'special' area. 
> 
> By the way, who all caught my The Iron Giant quote? ;D


	23. Start of Something New

The movie, after exactly two hours and thirteen minutes of runtime, finally ended. Apparently, Nero didn't find the movie to be very interesting, as he fell asleep roughly half way through. Though he was sure the kid was just tired, Dante took him willingly falling asleep beside him as being a sign that maybe, just maybe, Nero was beginning to trust him. He wisely did not abuse this trust while the other half-demon slumbered, choosing to keep his hands in the position that Nero had placed them in. With the movie now over, Dante looked over at the young man. He hadn't moved as he slept, his arms still crossed protectively across his chest; the only things indicating he had fallen asleep being his closed eyes and his mouth that had opened ever so slightly after his jaw muscles had relaxed. He never even snored. Just peacefully slept through all the explosions and gun fire being shown on the television screen in front of them. Dante observed his calm state for a few seconds, taking his time to enjoy it while it lasted, before deciding it was time to go ahead and awake the little fireball. 

"Hey, kid, time to wake up." Dante spoke in a normal tone as he lightly shook the arm that Nero's head was still lying on, therefore also shaking Nero. 

"Eugh?" Nero questioned unintelligibly as he joined the land of the living again. "What time is it?" He asked groggily as he briefly looked around the room, trying to get his wits about him again.

"Uhh…" Dante looked over at the clock beside them, on the bed stand. "About five." Nero had begun stretching his arms as Dante spoke, though he quickly stopped and shot straight up into a sitting position upon realizing what Dante had said.

"Five?! O' clock?" Nero questioned with worried surprise as he looked over to the clock to confirm the time for himself. "Shit! I'm late!" He exclaimed as he jumped out of bed, rushing so much to get to the bathroom, where his shoes and socks are, that he actually tripped over his own foot. Not to the point that he fell over, but enough to where he did stumble. Perhaps not even realizing what had happened in his hurried state, he just continued to the bathroom, not slowing down one bit. 

"What's the rush?" Dante questioned with an amused smirk as he sat up on the bed, though in a much, much less quick way.

"I'm late for an Order meeting." He said in a hurried tone as he leaned against the bathroom door, quick to put his shoes and socks back on his feet. 

"A meeting? You're all worked up over a meeting?" Dante teased him as he turned and swung his legs off the side of the bed. "Didn't you skip the last one?" 

"Yeah, and the one before that." Having finished putting on the last shoe, Nero stood up. "And also the one before that one…" He admitted quietly, though not because he was ashamed. "But this one's important, for once." Rather than responding, Dante quietly stood up from the bed as he waited for Nero to inevitably explain why this one meeting is so important.

"For this one we're gonna be meeting our new captain." Nero said as he finished placing his left boot onto his foot, therefore making him fully dressed again. As Nero straightened his back out again after having to bend over in order to reach his feet, Dante responded. 

"New captain? I thought that one guy was your captain?" Dante questioned inquisitively, referring to the older gentleman that he had met before when they got caught sneaking Aglæca back into headquarters. Walking around the bed, he stopping a few feet away from Nero and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Well, yeah, he has been." Nero confirmed as he looked over at Dante. "He wasn't meant to be captain forever though, just until the Order could find somebody who could take Credo's place as captain." He explained. "He was actually the captain before Credo came along, but Credo took his place when he retired." Nero further explained.

"Mmm." Dante hummed. "And you're eager to meet the new captain because…?" 

"Because Willow's been nagging on me about how I need to be going to these stupid meetings." He told him as he reholstered Red Queen, who had been placed up against a nearby wall. "If I don't at least make an appearance for this meeting, he says he's gonna start passing on all his shitty jobs to me." Nero paused for a moment, but then continued to speak before Dante could have the chance to respond. "Anyways, you gonna stick around for a bit longer?"

"Nah, I outta get back to the shop. You have fun at your meeting though." Dante teased sarcastically with a smirk, to which Nero rolled his eyes and scoffed lightly to convey how much he did not want to go.

"Yeah, I'm sure I will…" Nero muttered as he looked at the ground. A few moments of silence between them passed before Nero looked back up at Dante. "Well, uhh..." He began with hesitation and unease "I guess I'll see you around?" He said in a questioning tone.

"Yeah." Nero said absent mindedly as he headed to the door. "When you comin' back this way?"

"When do you want me to be comin' back this way?"

"Hmmm…." Nero pondered with his hand on the door knob. "Are you free next Friday?" He turned his head to look back at Dante.

"I can be." He said as he grabbed and wadded up the paper bag that use to have the food Nero brought him, the contents of said bag having been eaten while Nero was napping. "Something going on that day?" He questioned, since usually Nero just tells him he can just come over whenever he feels like it.

"Yeah, that's my birthday." Nero replied, to which Dante gasped dramatically, causing Nero to chuckle at him. "Oh c'mon Drama King, I told you that my birthday's coming up."

"Yeah but I was never told what day." He accurately pointed out to Nero as crumbled, then tossed, the paper bag into a nearby trashcan.

"Can you make it then?" Nero asked. He appeared to be nonchalant about what Dante's answer would be, his facial expression unconcerned and his voice monotone, but considering Nero just asked him the same question twice, he must want him to say yes.

"Yeah, sure, I don't see why not." Dante responded with a small smile. Ah yes, and there it is, that beautiful smile Nero gets whenever he's genuinely happy about something. "What kind of a person would I be if I missed my own boyfriend's birthday?" He rhetorically asked, his smile replaced with a smirk. Of course, Nero's response was to roll his eyes and scoff at the elder, though Dante did notice he continued to retain a slight smile. Moments later, though, his smile faded and his previously half annoyed demeanor was replaced with one of unease.

"Speaking of that… I, uh…" Nero began, though he clearly had issues finding the right words to speak next. This awkward pause caused Dante to become a bit concerned. Finally, Nero took his hand off the door knob in order to cross his arms and turn to the other man. "I don't want anybody else knowing about, you know… this." He said as he pointed at himself then at Dante, implying that he meant their relationship. "I mean, at least not yet!" Nero quickly added, realizing he may have unintentionally insulted him upon noticing Dante looked confused. Sighing deeply, Nero closed his eyes for a moment to again think about how he should properly phrase his next words. "I just don't want them to get the wrong idea."

"You don't want them to know that we're dating because…. they might get the idea that we're dating?" Dante questioned with confusion. 

"No, it's just… It's better that they don't know for now." 

"Well… okay." His tone being quiet, suggesting maybe he wasn't completely on board with this. There was a small, silence pause before Nero decided it was best for him to leave now. Uncrossing his arms, turning away from Dante, and placing his hand back onto the door knob in a single fluid motion. Dante then spoke up again, interrupting him from leaving. "Hey, don't I get a kiss goodbye?" He smirked mischievously.

"Yeah, right here." Nero immediately retorted before using his other hand to lightly tap his own butt cheek a couple times, implying that Dante can 'kiss his ass'. Flashing Dante a quick smirk beforehand, Nero turned the door knob and left the room. Chuckling in amusement at Nero's quick wit, Dante followed the young man out the door. 

"Oh c'mon, babe. Please?" Immediately he was met with a slap to the shoulder and a very stern looking Nero standing still in front of him, facing Dante, therefore causing him to also stop walking. 

"What did I _just_ say?" Nero scolded him in a hushed, but still upset, voice. 

"Sorry, old habits die hard." He said with a smirk, incorrectly implying that he wasn't actually sorry for slipping up. Though he only just recently started calling the kid 'babe', for many years now he's been calling pretty much any attractive person 'babe,' including his friends, Trish and Lady. Rolling his eyes, Nero turned away from him once more and continued the path he was previously walking.

"And stop calling me that!" He shouted, since he was a good distance away from the other man, who did not follow him this time, by the time he said this.

"Whatever you say, kid!" Dante shouted back, smirking widely as he knew Nero disliked being called 'kid' as well, but is running too late to his meeting to respond angrily at him. He could still feel the young man seething anyways as he rounded the corner, out of Dante's sight. He'll probably regret saying that later… Oh well. After making a 180 degree rotation away from where he used to be facing towards, Dante began walking down the long hall, towards the entrance of the building.

 

\------------------------------------------------------

Just as the sun began to set on the horizon - though it's not like the sun is actually visible with all the high rise buildings in Capulet City blocking the view - Dante pulled up to the shop. By the time he looked back up from looking down to turn off his motorcycle's engine and kick down the kickstand, Trish was standing at the doorway to Devil May Cry. Leaning against the doorway with one side of the double-door entrance open, her arms loosely crossed against her chest with one knee slightly bent, she looked at Dante quite scornfully.

"You said you'd be home hours ago." She said contemptly, her eyebrows furrowed. Initially confused by her bad mood, Dante quickly remembered that he had called Trish while Nero was having lunch with Kyrie, telling her he'd be back in time to help her with a mission, since he had been planning on leaving soon after Nero got back. 

"Oh yeah, uh… sorry about that, plans changed." Dante said. He did regret not at least warning Trish that she'd be alone on the mission, though he couldn't help but smirk as he thought of _why_ he was getting home later than what he had told her originally - that is, he was watching a movie with a certain cute kid cuddling up to him. Well, maybe not so much 'cuddling' as it was 'allowing Dante to touch a small, nonsexual region of his body while he angrily rested on Dante's arm'.

" _Plans changed_? I was running this business by myself because _plans changed_ and you didn't think to tell me?!"

"Sheesh Trish," Dante chuckled "I suppose the job didn't go very smoothly?" He asked as he dismounted his bike. Sighing tiredly, she responded more calmly.

"No, not really." She said. Walking up the stairs, around Trish, Dante entered into the shop. "Hey, I'm not done with you!" She yelled, uncrossing her arms and following behind him, closing the door as she did so. "I was perfectly fine with doing that mission by myself," as she began her lecture, Dante walked over to his desk and sat himself down at his chair. "but when you say you're going to be here, I expect you to actually be here!" Propping his feet up onto the corner of the desk, he grabbed up one of the magazines he had left on his desk before he had left. He was fully prepared to quietly sit through her lecturing - he knows he deserves it this time and won't protest. However, he failed to notice that her lecture had suddenly stopped and had instead been replaced by silence.

"Why are you smirking like that?" She questioned, her arms crossed again as she intensely stared at him with suspicion. 

"Huh?" Dante questioned, looking up at her from his magazine. He didn't notice he had kept his smirk this entire time - only noticing when he felt his facial muscles relax back into a normal expression. For several, silent seconds, Trish just stared at him accusatorily, her eyebrows still furrowed.

" _Did you blow me off to go get laid_?" She asked in a harsh tone, practically brimming with anger now. Dante laughed at this accusation, though this did not calm Trish's temper.

"So I come home in a good mood. Is that really so weird?" Dante chuckled, peering up from his magazine.

"Yes." She said sternly, to which Dante just simply shrugged - a smug smirk reappearing on his face as he went back to reading. As she sat up on his desk, next to his feet, Trish continued to observe him suspiciously, determined to figure out the reason for why he not only forgot to inform her that he'd have to skip out on helping her on a mission she had earlier, but also why he came in with a small, but still ever so present, smirk. Normally, such an expression wouldn't be abnormal to see on somebody as cocky as Dante. But, in all the years Trish has known Dante, he has never lied to her, nor gone against his word. Today, he not only went against his word by not coming home when he said he would, but he also came home with that certain kind of smirk that meant something good happened while he was gone - and Trish will not be satisfied until she finds out what exactly that something is. "Did you stop by that one bar you like so much and got one of their, uh… banana splits?"

"Strawberry sundae." Dante corrected her. "And nope." He turned to the next page of his magazine. Rubbing her chin with her pointer finger as her thumb rested underneath her chin, Trish became more inquisitive than angry.

"Did you go to Love Planet?"

"Nope." A few more seconds of silence before Trish thought up the next possibility.

"Did that cheap bastard finally pay us for that job we did for him two months ago?"

"Aw c'mon, the guy's going through a rough patch. Cut him some slack."

"Yeah and we'll be going through another rough patch of our own if we keep doing missions for free…" Trish muttered to herself, knowing Dante could still hear her. "Okay, let me think about this…" She said to herself quietly as she began to think deeply. "Let's see… You left to go to Fortuna…" She paused to think. "I don't remember why, I think you said something about helping the Order with a mission.." ….Okay, maybe Dante does tell little white lies every now and then, as that is not the reason he went to Fortuna. "If you weren't at your favorite places here, then you would've been walking around in the streets… But you came home on your bike, you didn't walk back here…" Another brief pause. "So that means you're just getting back from Fortuna!" Trish exclaimed, removing her fingers from her chin to point accusingly at Dante.

"Oh! You got me!" Dante faked a dramatic tone as his smirk grew wider, not even bothering to look up from his magazine. Moments later he found the magazine to be ripped from his hands and placed firmly on the desk beside him by Trish, who now wore a smirk of her own.

"No no, I know _exactly_ what's got you in such a good mood now."

"Exactly?" Dante questioned as he crossed his arms across his chest, not even upset by the fact that his magazine was so rudely taken away from him.

"Well… maybe not exactly." Trish admitted regrettably. "But I do know you've been hanging around Nero."

"Well I mean I couldn't exactly ignore the kid. He does live in Fortuna, ya know."

"Yes, but you did a bit more than just hang around, didn't you?" Her smirk grew wider as Dante skeptically narrowed his eyes at her.

"Whattaya tryin' to say?

"You slept with him, didn't you?" This accusation caused Dante to erupt in laughter that lasted for a solid ten seconds.

"Oh yes, definitely. The guy who gets violent if I even _breathe_ in his general direction let me sleep with him." Dante said as his laughter subsided into a light chuckle. 

"Hmm… No, you're right…." Trish said quietly as she pondered to herself, looking away from Dante as she did. Just then, the rotary phone on Dante's desk began ringing shrilly. Looking over at the phone briefly to acknowledge it's ringing, she then glared over at Dante, her eyebrows furrowed, before returning to normal as she answered the phone. "Devil May Cry?" Shifting the phone from her hand to placing it in between her shoulder and ear, having to keep her head tilted as she did so, Trish grabbed a pen and paper as she listened to the person on the other line. Looking up from his magazine with a bit of interest, Dante observed her as she hummed a few "mhm"'s and "yeah"'s as she presumably wrote down an address.

"Anything interesting?" Dante asked as she moved the phone away from her ear, moving it towards the phone's receiver. 

"Not really." She sighed as she sat the phone down in its place. 

"You got it then?" He asked as he looked back down at his magazine.

"Yeah." She said as she slid off of Dante's desk, reaching to grab the sword Sparda off of the wall behind the desk. "Don't think I'm letting you off the hook just yet though." She warned, placing the trusty sword on her back as she headed towards the front doors.

"Wouldn't count on it." Dante teased with a smirk as Trish left the building, allowing the man to finally enjoy his magazine alone. The rest of the night went along pretty peacefully. Dante caught up on his magazines and Trish did her own thing. Dante, of course, didn't know exactly _what_ Trish was doing, since he was busy reading. As for the job she had, Trish was only gone for an hour, but her interest in badgering Dante for answers seemed to have dissipated for the time being, luckily for Dante. For now, he just wanted some time to relax and kick back with his favorite monthly publications.


	24. Nero's Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Nero's birthday and the boys decide to go to the local carnival to celebrate!

October 24th  
The day is Friday, a week after Dante left Fortuna. Nothing particularly interesting has happened during his time away from the old town. The missions and jobs were average, his routine normal. Everything was same ol' same ol'. Well, actually, no, that isn't completely true… There is one small thing that's different in his daily routine. You see, previously, Nero wouldn't text the older man unless he needed his help or had no other choice. There was no chit-chatting, small talk, beating around the bush, and only very little, if any, discussion on Nero's personal life and absolutely no inquires on Dante's personal life. Yes, they were friends, but Nero simply wasn't comfortable discussing anything personal, especially not through electronic devices rather than face-to-face. Yet, upon waking up in the afternoon the next day after he returned home, Dante found a text from said man waiting for him on his phone. Its contents weren't anything too out of the ordinary though. A simple question on if he, Dante, had slipped up yet and told the girls about their new relationship status - as well as an expected death threat if he had. Upon being told that, no, he had been a good boy and kept his mouth shut, Dante expected that to be the end of their conversation, as per usual. Instead, Nero responded again, and they somehow ended up texting back and forth throughout the day after that. Mind you that most of the replies were sent about an hour after the initial message was received, due to their occupations sometimes requiring them to stop and pay attention to the job at hand for long periods of time. After all, texting can wait until later, when they're not toe-to-toe with an angry demon. Nothing serious was discussed - they just talked about how their day was going, made jokes, complained about their most recent mission, and so on. Nevertheless, it was quite a pleasant surprise to Dante, and even more so when he received a text at approximately 11 o' clock that day telling him goodnight. Sure, the kid sometimes sarcastically or irritatedly tells the man goodnight, but to actually say - well, text - him a genuine 'goodnight'? Unheard of!

However, this odd behavior by the young man continued up until today. Dante just figured that, since Nero has a bit of a hard time expressing his non-angry feelings in person, he might be compensating by trying to keep in better contact with the older man when he's not in Fortuna, especially since they're supposedly more than friends now. They texted each other often, and, in fact, Nero even _called_ him a couple times! Though, to be fair, Dante kinda initiated this. He had called Nero a couple days after he left Fortuna, asking if he had accidentally left behind a box of a particular kind of bullet that he needed for a mission he was about to leave for. Normally he would've just gone out and bought a replacement box, but these bullets were pretty expensive and he would rather just have Nero retrieve the box he already has and meet him somewhere. Fortunately, he found the box of missing bullets mere seconds after asking Nero if he had seen them over there, finding them underneath an old pile of magazines behind his desk, to which Nero just laughed at him. Again expecting this to be the end of their very short conversation, Dante chuckled himself as he said a quick 'thanks for looking', before he took the phone off of his ear and began to hang up. He stopped, though, when he heard Nero say "wait!". Placing the phone back on his ear and asking him what's up, Nero proceeded to tell him that, for his birthday on Friday, they're going to be going over to a carnival that's in a town near Fortuna island and if Dante wanted to go he could just meet them there. Hearing his reluctance as Dante told him "I dunno kid, a carnival?", Nero went on to essentially lecture him about how he doesn't have to act like the old man he is all the time - that it's okay to do something fun that doesn't include women or alcohol, that it's not childish to go to a carnival, and so on and so forth. This went on for about 10 minutes, in which Dante was silent throughout with a half smirk on his face, before Nero finished and the line went silent, as neither one of them was talking now. Waiting a few seconds to make sure Nero was actually done lecturing, Dante went on to jokingly say "Well… I was actually gonna say that carnivals are kinda a rip off since they're so expensive now, but hey, it's good to know you care about me in my old age." A faint "oh…" could be heard from Nero before he quickly moved on by telling him that he wouldn't have to get him a present if he came with them, thus Dante wouldn't be spending that much money in the end. Though, Dante knew how much Nero hated being given presents anyways, as Jack had already tipped him off about that beforehand. Something about how he doesn't like people feeling like they have to spend money to get him a last-minute present just because it's the anniversary of the day he was born. 

Of course, being the "supportive and loving" boyfriend he is, Dante said he would go with them. This would be why he's currently standing in the carnival's parking lot, half sitting and half leaning on his motorcycle. Uncrossing his arms briefly to pull out his phone from his pocket and check the time, just to make sure he did indeed get here on time, he then resumed looking around. It's currently 6:09pm, nine minutes past when Nero said he'd be here. No big deal though, it's only been nine minutes. Being that his bike doesn't take up a lot of space, Dante was able to snag a spot right next to the entrance, and so is able to pass the time until the others can get here by listening to the nearby music playing through various speakers located across the carnival grounds. Sure enough, a white, SUV-looking vehicle with a light-up "TAXI" sign on its roof pulled up just a few minutes later not too far away from him. After the car stopped, the back door facing Dante opened up and out from the backseat came Willow, Jack, and Nero - in that order. None of them were wearing their usual "job" clothes. Nero didn't look too out of the ordinary though, he always wears normal blue jeans anyways, but he was missing his iconic blue coat and his red zip-up shirt, instead they had been replaced with a loosely-fitting old black long sleeve T-shirt. Dante took notice that Nero is also wearing gloves, despite the relatively warm weather, likely to further hide his arm. The other two men looked quite different in normal clothes though, as they generally wear the standard white uniform that every Holy Knight, except Nero, wears. As per usual, two of the men, Jack and Willow, were bickering over some discussion they had had in the car.

"Listen, you can do whatever you want, I'm just saying it's a stupid idea." Willow told him as he made his way to the front passenger door, which had its window rolled down. Slightly leaning through the window, he grabbed out his wallet from his pocket and began counting out how much they owed the driver. Meanwhile, Jack just grunted like an upset child and crossed his arms. Nero, the first to notice Dante's presence, looked over at him shortly after exiting the vehicle. His gaze being met with a smiling, rather than a smirking, face, Nero couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey, whassup old man?" Nero greeted as he approached the elder, leaving the other two behind to squabble. 

"Nothin' much. What 'bout you, kid?" He greeted back. Though he rolled his eyes to being called a kid, yet again, he still held his smile.

"Thanks for coming out." Nero told him as he absent mindedly placed his hands into his own pockets.

"Anything for you." Dante winked at the young man as his smile changed into a mischievous smirk. Immediately after he winked, Nero looked away, closed his eyes, and scoffed as he shook his head side to side to further show his disapproval. Before he could actually say anything though, the other two guys came walking up.

"Hey, man! Look at you, all dressed up." Jack commented as they approached. This caused Nero to look up again and observe Dante's clothes, as he seems to have not noticed it before. He is indeed a bit more dressed up than you would expect for somebody going to the carnival; in place of his flashy red work attire, he is wearing a nice, long sleeve, maroon colored, button-up dress shirt along with black blue jeans. The shirt looks tasteful with a dash of endearment, since even though all of the buttons have been buttoned, the neckline comes down enough so it is still possible to see Dante's collarbone and just a hint of his upper chest, much like his normal shirt does. Nothing too fancy nevertheless, but still fancier than a simple T-shirt. "You got a hot date waiting for you?" To this, Dante pondered briefly to how he should respond, before he smirked again and slightly nodded.

"You could say that." He said without lying. Dante knew to not look over at Nero, who is likely intensely staring at him now, instead keeping eye contact with Jack, who just laughed.

"Someday you're gonna have to tell me how you do it." Jack told him with a grin, referring to how Dante gets the ladies, before he headed towards the entrance with Willow following shortly behind.

"Well, step one.. be handsome. Step two-" "What? I'm good looking!" Jack interrupted Willow, marking the beginning of yet another episode of bickering between them. Dante, who had previously been watching them walk away, suddenly felt a pain on the front part of his shoulder, as well as being momentarily pushed back some by the force that caused this pain.

"Oww! What was that for?" Dante chuckled with a wince as he nursed the shoulder that had been punched by rubbing it, his attention having now been shifted over to the cause of his pain. This was a reoccurring theme with the kid, Dante had noticed - if he was upset with Dante, but couldn't yell at him like normal, he would simply punch the older man. Though not really painful, it was still quite startling!

"This is **not** a date." Nero said sternly.

"Who said it was?"

"…You did?" 

"Oh." Dante realized moments later. "Nah, I know, I was just messing around." He said nonchalantly before standing up straight off of his bike and following the path the other two just took. Nero promptly followed beside him.

"Why're you dressed like this then?"

"It's all I had left. Washer broke last week and all my other "civilian"- " Dante physically air quoted "-clothes are dirty." He explained. "Why, you don't like how I look?" Dante asked curiously.

"You look fine." He answered, placing his hands back into his front pants pockets as they walked. "Just didn't want you to get the wrong idea." 

"Yeah you're right, I might get the crazy idea that we're dating." Dante said with a sarcastic smirk.

"Shhh!" The younger said in a hushed tone, as they were rapidly approaching the other two men as they stood in the line. This did not stop Dante from holding his smirk.

"One ticket please." Willow told the man behind the admissions stand, as they have been waiting in line up until this point. While the man was giving him his ticket, after having taken the admission fee from him, Dante and Nero stopped behind Jack. Side stepping away from the stand so that Jack may go ahead and pay for his ticket while he placed his own ticket and wallet into his pants pocket, everybody sequentially took a step forward.

"You could've at least shaved." Nero nagged quietly after he had briefly examined Dante's face.

"What? I did!" Dante insisted, rubbing on his chin with his pointer finger and thumb to verify with himself that he had indeed shaved. He could feel the prickles of new hairs emerging, but he was certainly more shaven than normal.

"When?"

"Yesterday." He said as he removed his hand from his chin, instead using his hand to reach into his pocket for his wallet.

"Yeah… well, you're already looking scratchy again." Dante just softly chuckled, shaking his head side to side in disbelief at Nero's pickiness as he slid his card onto the stand towards the man behind the stand, as Jack as already bought his ticket by this point.

"Two tickets." 

"Yes, sir." The man replied as he reached his hand towards Dante's card.

"Hey, wait!" Nero quickly shouted and grabbed up the card before the man could take it himself. "You're not paying for me." He told Dante, looking over at him. The tired man behind the stand simply retracted his arm as he waited for the two men to settle their disagreement.

"What, why not? This is your birthday present." 

"No, I won't let you." He said seriously with furrowed eyebrows.

"C'mon, please?" Dante begged in a sweet tone. Though Nero did not tell him no again, he continued to hold his scorned expression. Meaning, he was contemplating on whether to let Dante have his way or not. "Babe?" His voice was still sweet-like, but a smirk has now creeped onto his face. Just as he had hoped, Nero's cheeks flushed into an adorable shade of pink, his eyebrows unfurrowed, as he is now too embarrassed to be upset. Jack and Willow had both walked over to the actual entrance to the carnival several yards away to wait for them, safely out of earshot.

"Okay, fine." Nero muttered as he tossed Dante's card back onto the stand, his brow refurrowed as he's now likely upset with himself for unintentionally showing his embarrassment. The admissions man, uncaring of the sexuality of his customers, resumed what he was doing and grabbed the card up.

"Thanks." Dante said upon grabbing his card back, once the man was done moments later. Walking away as he put his card and wallet back into their rightful places, Nero followed behind him, still slightly upset.

"Hey, what's the hold up?" Willow asked upon noticing they were approaching, having seen, but not heard, they were arguing at the admissions stand.

"He tried to pay for me." Nero muttered loud enough for Willow to hear, which caused a familiar grin to appear on Dante's face as he placed his hands within his pants pockets. 

"It looked like he tried and succeeded." Jack said with a small smirk, since he had seen Nero inexplicably give up his efforts to keep Dante from paying for the both of them. In response, Nero just grumbled unintelligibly to himself. "Hey, so, me and Willow were thinkin'," Jack moved onto another topic "and we figured we should go ahead and do whatever rides we wanted to do, then get something to eat, then go play some of the games around here. Ya know, that way we won't get sick on the rides?" He said, since eating then going on carnival rides can make a person sick.

"You mean so you won't get sick on the rides?" Nero said with a smirk, implying a previous history of Jack having a weak stomach on rollercoasters. Chuckling, Jack responded.

"You're never gonna let that go, huh?"

"Jack, you puked on my lap as soon as the ride had stopped!" Nero accused him with a laugh, though he seemed to not have any grudges over what had apparently happened before.

"I didn't know I was gonna get sick!" Jack said defensively, though he pouted as if he still felt bad about it.

"You had eaten an entire pizza not even 10 minutes before!" 

"I was 12!" Jack reminded him. "Nobody told me you shouldn't eat before riding roller coaster…" He mumbled as he continued to show his guilt via his physical expression. Nero just smiled and quietly laughed at him.

"I just wish you had puked over the side of the cart instead of on my damn lap." He said in a joking tone as he turned to the left and began walking away from them, towards the area of the carnival housing the large metal machines responsible for causing perhaps hundreds of carnival-goers to scream with excitement. Having taken the lead in doing so, the others followed behind him.

"Which one's first?" Dante asked out of idle curiosity. He didn't much care what rides they would end up spending the night on, in all honesty he was here pretty much only because Nero wanted him to be here, but that doesn't mean he isn't interested. It's not that he doesn't like roller coasters, it's just that all the really big and fun rides are at actual amusement parks, since they're too big to be taken apart then put back together quick like a traveling carnival would need it to be. 

"I dunno, figured we'd just look around and see what looked interesting." Nero responded as he walked. It didn't take them very long to reach the carnival ride area. As they continued to amble their way through the area, the first ride they passed to their left was a ride comprised of a large, metal ship that would mechanically be hoisted high into the air, then back down, then back up again, all in a fluid swinging motion similar to that of somebody swinging on a swingset. To their right, there was another ride that would shoot straight into the air, then drop back down suddenly, then back up, where the ride would erratically go up and down high in the air before bringing its frightened, adrenaline-rushed passengers safely to the ground. Seeing no interest in these rides, the men pressed on, until one of the young hunters suddenly spoke up.

"Oh, oh!" Jack cried happily like a kid who just found a piece of candy, causing the others to stop walking. "Over there!" Pointing down another path leading to more rides, the generality of Jack pointing rather than saying what he saw meant the others could interpret him as pointing at a number of different things. However, as soon as they looked in that general direction, it was clear what Jack wanted them to see: The bumper car racing ride. "Can we? Please? Please?!" Jack turned to Nero as he begged shamelessly. Unable to stop himself from chuckling at Jack's behavior, he was barely able to say 'sure' before Jack took off towards the line of people. This ride clearly wasn't a roller coaster - it's a carnival ride where people race against each other in sort-of mini race car on a short, but very loopy, race track. The car that is in first place when crossing the finish line after completing several laps is the car that wins.

"Car racing it is, eh?" Willow mused as he too made his way towards the line, albeit much slower than Jack.

"Hey, are you able to do this ride?" Nero turned to ask Dante in a seemingly genuinely caring tone as he followed behind Willow, with Dante walking beside him.

"Sure, I don't see why not." 

"Good. Wouldn't want you to throw your back out trying to make the turns." Nero teased him with a mischievous smirk.

"Hmm…" Dante pretended to ponder over Nero's fake concern. "You know what, you're right. I might want to set this one out. Wouldn't want to flare up the ole arthritis by pulling the wheel too hard." he said with a smirk of his own. Simply laughing lightly in response, Nero knew the elder was just messing with him and had no actual intentions of skipping out on the ride, or any of the other rides they would be going on.

\--------------------------------------------------------

It had been some few hours since they had first arrived on the grounds. As with many carnivals or places with amusement rides, much of the time they've spent has been waiting in line, leaving them to pass the time with small talk, complaints of missions and 'coworkers', and other such unimportant information shared between them. The time they did spend on the actual rides was quite fun, however. It made Dante realize just how long it had been since he had last been on a carnival ride. Riding roller coasters is much like fighting demons, he remembered; you get a rush of adrenaline, screams can be heard, and you are flying through the air at blazing speeds. The main differences were, of course, roller coasters are not nearly as messy and there's a very low risk that anyone will be harmed. Regardless, it was very enjoyable, and if nothing else it served to be a good bonding activity between the four men. Jack, Dante discovered, is capable of screaming to practically inhumanly high pitch levels when the ride does a loop de loop. Willow, a strong and capable Knight, will cling to the rails in front of him in desperation as though it brings him comfort with a very distressed expression whenever the ride makes a sharp turn. Nero, too, has his own little quirk - though he is not afraid of heights, he will tightly shut his eyes and stiffen up when the roller coaster dips down too steeply, though he otherwise outwardly enjoys the ride. When questioned, or rather teased, over this, the man said going down steep slopes at high speeds causes his back muscles to spasm and his reaction is simply in response to being uncomfortable. Whether this is the truth or an attempt to protect his dignity is anyone's guess, however. Dante would like to think he was immune to these unconscious, human reactions, that he can easily endure a roller coaster in a calm state, but he would be quite wrong, as the others noted that he was quite expressive in how entertained he was by the ride, often laughing and smiling throughout the ride. The others did not "fear" the rides, per say, more like it was a bit unnerving at times but otherwise enjoyable, but nevertheless Dante's demeanor set them as ease - especially Jack, who is perhaps more easily frightened than the others. 

"God, I'm starving. Can we eat now?" Jack spoke as they walked down the dirt path of the carnival.

"I thought you wanted to go on the Bone Crusher?" Nero questioned.

"Well, I do, but… We can do that later."

"So… you want to go on a ride that does loops _after_ you stuff your face?" His tone further showed his disapproval.

"Oh c'mon, I just want a little bite to eat." Unconvinced, Nero just gave him 'a look'. "We've been here for hours! Look, it's almost 11pm." Jack showed Nero his phone's screen to confirm, which he had taken out of his pants pocket to look at the time as he spoke to him. Nero looked at the screen, then looked back up at Jack with the same, unchanged expression from before. "I promise I won't eat that much. Just enough to stop my stomach from grumbling, okay? Please?" He begged. Rolling his eyes with a sigh moments later, Nero waved off Jack with his hand, indicating he'll let him eat. 

"Thank you, O wise and merciful one!" Jack said in a praising, yet mocking, voice. 

"Yeah yeah, food court's right there." He said with a lazy pointing gesture to the northeast from them. As they all slightly changed their angle as they walked, so that they were eventually walking towards the northeast, there was a brief few moments of silence that Nero likely enjoyed, before Jack spoke once more.

"You know what would be crazy?"

"Hm?" Nero replied out of habit - Jack likes to ask rhetorical questions.

"If your birthday was actually in a week." He said with a sly smile, as though he was actually being clever. This earned him an eyebrow raise from the young man, but he decided against verbally responding. "Y'know, because then you'd be born on Halloween. And, well.. y'know." Jack poked Nero's right arm as he was saying his second sentence to show the meaning behind his statements. Though his devil arm is covered, it can be noted that Nero still flinched at his arm being touched.

"Wouldn't that be something." Nero said idly. Though the topic held no particular interest to him, in fact he found it displeasing as he would rather not talk about how it would be an odd coincidence if he, a half devil, was actually born on a day now revered to be a day for monsters, tricks, and other ghoulish activities, Nero could not bring himself to rudely ignore his friend; rather he would just indicate his boredom by responding uninterestingly.

"Well it could be possible, couldn't it?" Willow spoke up from behind, merely out of curiosity than to provoke Nero.

"What? No…. They said my umbilical cord or whatever fell off like a day or two after they found me -" "Found you?" Dante accidentally interrupted Nero abruptly. He knew Nero was an orphan like himself, largely from bits of information gathered from Jack whenever he happened to mention them. He knew Kyrie's parents must have adopted Nero, considering Kyrie is his sister - well, step sister, Dante found out later - and Credo was his step brother. Beyond that was a mystery to the man though. Nero, as we all well know, is rather secretive about his past and has never offered up much of any insight into his history. Dante can't blame him for this as he too is particularly unwilling to divulge on his own past, and so has never outright asked the kid himself to spare him of any pain that such memories might bring. However, as he had only been half listening to the conversation, he was caught by surprise by Nero's mentioning of having been found as a baby, leading his mouth to betray him by speaking when he knew he probably shouldn't of.

"Yeah." Nero looked over at him as they entered into the food court, to which they all stopped walking shortly after so that they could look around at the food stands to see what was appealing to them. Though, Nero seemed to have little interest in eating, and simply maintained eye contact with Dante after they stopped. "Found me." He added, offering no further information willingly before breaking eye contact to look around, perhaps for a snack that appeals to him.

"That little stand over there looks like it has decent prices. Well… decent for a carnival stand." Willow pointed out, towards a brightly lit, small stand with the usual array of cheap and easy foods, such as hotdogs, chilidogs, funnel cakes, and so forth. 

"That's good enough. We just want snacks, right?" Jack questioned, though this was more to show Nero that he will restrain himself from eating as much as he'd like than it is a genuine question. 

"Just snacks." Nero reiterated with a stern look at Jack, who nodded at him before leading the way towards the stand, to which the others followed behind him.

"The woman who found you though was pretty coocoo at the time, how do you know she didn't lie about your umbrella cord?" Jack spoke as he walked, failing to notice the smirks on the faces of the people behind them, along with the quiet sniggering coming from Willow. They allowed Jack's mispronunciation of umbilical cord to go unteased though, with Jack being none the wiser.

"Hey, she was a nice lady." Nero defended, though he did laugh lightly.

"Well yeah she was nice but she was crazy!"

"Eh, maybe." He said with a shrug. "A birthday is just a day to celebrate your birthday though, who cares when I was actually born?" He said as they reached the food stand, stopping behind a couple of teenagers who are obviously a couple, judging by their overly affectionate touching of one another.

"What, you don't want to know the exact date that you came out of your mother's vagina?" Jack said with a smirk, observing the man beside him as he looked away in disgust, shuttered, then uttered a faint "ugh" sound, to which Jack just laughed. 

"I had a nightmare about that once." Nero admitted in disgust.

"A nightmare?" Willow inquired. 

"Yeah. I had a dream that I was being born again. It was _awful_."*

"Oh, did you see the video too?" Willow asked with a laugh. "Yup, that'll do it to ya." He responded after seeing Nero flinch and go through another round of being grossed out. "You ever seen a woman give birth, Dante?" He asked as they took a few steps forward, as the couple ahead of them had finally completed their order and obtained their food. Nero and Jack, who were in front of Willow and Dante, began dealing with ordering food.

"Oh yeah." Dante said with a nod and not exactly a disgusted expression, but a 'yup, shit happens' expression.

"Man I don't know how the people filming that stuff can stomach it. I mean, yeah the miracle of birth is beautiful and whatnot, but there's just so much… fluids. And the stretching. Oh God, the stretching…" Willow said as though he was suffering from a traumatic flashback.

"It's not as bad in person though. Happens pretty quickly once the gears are in motion." He said with a shrug.

"Wait, what? You've seen it _in person_?" As Dante replied with a small, unsexual smirk and a nod, Willow then asked another question. "Wow, more power to you then! I couldn't do that."

"Do you have kids?" Nero piped up, as he had finished ordering himself a hotdog and soda and had been quietly listening to them. This prompted Willow to lean forward and tell the nice man behind the stand what he would like to get. Though his tone was normal, his movements unchanged, and his facial expression likely uninteresting, the fact that Nero did not attempt to look back at Dante was enough to tell Dante that he was asking a question that is very, very important to him. 

"Nah." Dante could practically hear Nero let go of the breath he was holding, though he could plainly see Nero had been breathing normally the entire time. "I was walking home after a late night a few years back and I was walking past an alleyway when I heard some woman scream "wait!" at me. I figured maybe she was in trouble or something, so being the good guy I am, I ran towards her voice." He said with an egotistical smirk, though Nero was still not looking at him. At this moment the man behind the stand questioned Dante on what he wanted to have, but he simply kindly waved off the man with a brief smile to indicate to him he didn't want anything. He'd rather save his money and get an actual meal later. "I had Ebony all ready but it turns out she was just in labor. She told me later she had no car and had been walking to the hospital, but her legs gave out on her. Anyways," He began with a sigh "I tried to convince her I wasn't the man for the job, but I ended up helping her anyways."

"Now wait a minute, you can't just end with that, we want details!" Jack demanded after Dante went quiet moments after. 

"Were you scared?" Nero questioned teasingly as he grabbed up his hotdog and drink, then turned and began making his way towards an empty picnic table, though not before shooting Dante a smirk.

"Hell yeah I was!" Dante readily admitted with a laugh. "You try keeping calm when a woman is spread eagle, laying in a pool of I-don't-even-know-what, screaming at you to help her, and you can see a baby's head starting to poke outta there!" He reminisced with a shutter, though jokingly. "But I did what needed to be done. Washed my hands with some alcohol I had in a flask I had and dove right in." 

"Where you able to have sex afterwards?" Jack questioned, as those who had ordered food all had it by now and they are all following Nero.

"No, I took her to the hospital afterwards." Dante joked, which they all chuckled at, minus uptight Nero of course. "But yeah, took me a while after that to get going again." As he finished speaking, they reached the table, and promptly sat down. Nero and Jack on one side, and Dante and Willow on the other, respectively.

"Hey!" Jack exclaimed, looking up with newfound interest in another topic after they had gone temporarily silent. "Have you ever told Dante about the insane story your step mom told everyone?"

"No." Nero sighed heavily, though Dante had a feeling it was not because he didn't want to tell Dante so much as he didn't want to tell anyone. 

"Ah, man," Jack began, directing his attention towards Dante now "that shit was crazy." He told him. "Now I've only heard the stories, I wasn't there of course, but this woman came running into headquarters, carrying a little newborn wrapped in a blanket, making all these crazy accusations that the Gods have given her a newborn son and that he's the chosen one or some bullshit. Like the damn kid was Jesus Christ himself!" Jack started laughing, which caused Willow to join in. "Oh yeah that's _one_ of the versions of the story!" Chuckling, Dante inquired Nero on his opinion, as he too was laughing some.

"I mean, yeah she was a really nice lady, but she did have some tall tales. I remember I once broke a finger after falling off a swing set and she told me it was Sparda punishing me for something I did wrong. What I did wrong, I don't know, she just said that was between me and him and he sure as hell wasn't speaking up." In response, they all chuckled a bit more. 

"Do you still have that blanket?" Jack inquired moments later, after they settled down.

"Oh yeah, it's in the top drawer of my dresser." Nero responded, then looked over at Dante. "That's how they knew my name, you know." He said a bit solemnly, voluntarily offering up a bit of his past to him for the first time in doing so.

"What? From the blanket?" He questioned.

"Yup." He sighed. "They say I was wrapped up in a little black blanket with golden embroidery that said "Nero", so that's how they knew my name."** To this, Dante offered up a small smile. He couldn't help it! Nero's a handsome, strong man now, but the image of him being a tiny, vulnerable little newborn in a little black blanket with his name on it was just too cute. 

"I hope that wasn't just the name of the company." Jack teased as he scarfed down his food.

"Or the name of the guy that designed the blanket." Willow added, to which Nero just chuckled, firmly believing that neither of those scenario's is what actually happened.

"No, pretty sure it was my name." Nero said light heartedly. 

"I'll be right back." Jack said a few moments later as he was munching on the last bite of his food. Immediately, he began to stand up.

"Where are you going?" Willow said, suspicious of Jack.

"Oh, uh, just gonna get some mustard."

"For the food you've already eaten?" Nero questioned.

"Well, no… for the food I'm getting." Jack said quietly, though still audible.

"Jack." He said in a warning tone, clearly disapproving of his decision.

"Oh c'mon! All I had was _one_ hotdog. It's not going to kill me if I get just one more. I'm still hungry!" Jack whined. "I promise, just one more and that's it." He begged. Nero furrowed his eyebrows at him in silence, before sighing heavily moments later. Nero waved him off in defeat, shaking his head side to side, essentially telling him to go to whatever he wants.

With that, Jack went to get another hotdog. Five minutes after this, he got himself some nachos. Eight and a half minutes after that, he washed it all down with a funnel cake.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Eugh.." Jack moaned, clutching his stomach tightly. "I'm gonna be sick.." As he stumbled forward as they went through the exit gate for the Bone Crusher, his face became more and more pale.

"Hold on, I gotcha." Willow said as he quickly moved beside Jack, grabbing his arm and slinging it behind his neck, holding Jack's forearm to ensure Jack stays upright. He used his other arm to wrap around Jack's waist in a purely platonic manner, to further support the sick man.

"I told you you shouldn't of eaten beforehand!" Nero scolded him, unsympathetic to Jack's pains as he did indeed warn him.

"I didn't eat that much though!" He groaned.

"You ate like a horse!" 

"Oh hush! You two can argue about it later!" Willow interjected, ending their argument, though Jack likely didn't have the strength to continue it anyways. "I'm gonna go sit him down and get him some water." He said with a sigh before he and Jack began their slow trek. They were heading towards the end of the line of carnival game stands, which was just a few feet yards away from them. Upon reaching this, Willow and Jack disappeared from sight as they rounded the corner. As they left, Nero stayed behind, placing his hands in his pockets as he watched them leave. Dante, who had been behind him, started to go around Nero so as to follow the other two men, when suddenly he was grabbed the arm. Pausing midstride to look at the hand that halted his movement, he could see it was Nero's - and so he directed his attention to him instead.

"Hey I, uh…" He faltered. "I just wanted to say thanks for coming out with us." A smile formed on his lips, indicating his appreciation is genuine. 

"Ah, don't sweat it. I had fun." Dante responded, giving him a smile of his own as he turned back to face the man, which prompted Nero to let go of him and resume having his hands in his pockets.

"Really? You were pretty quiet tonight." Nero commented. "Well, as quiet as you could possibly be." He added jokingly.

"Hmm, yeah, you're right. I was." He admitted with a small nod, placing his hands in his pockets. "Sometimes I like to sit back and just enjoy the view though. Ya know, enjoy life a little." A smirk crept up on his face.

"Yeah, some beautiful view here." Nero scoffed with sarcasm as he glanced around, looking at all the bits of trash on the ground and the screaming children running around freely, even though it's likely way past their bed time.

"It sure is." Something in Dante's tone prompted Nero to look back up at him, mostly in confusion and skepticism, before Nero saw the lusty smirk on the man's face and the romantic look in his eye. It was then that he realized what Dante's view really had been, which, of course, caused him to look away in embarrassment and cough awkwardly. 

"Well, anyways.." He said as his head lulled towards looking at the ground. "I know you're too old for carnivals now, but I'm glad you were able to stay out past your bedtime to come out here." Ah yes, if he mocks the man's age, that'll spark a friendly bicker between them, therefore changing the subject and ending his embarrassment. However, to his dismay, this did not happen. As Nero looked back up at him with a smirk to further mock him, he saw Dante unphased by his words. His smirk, the look in his eyes, it was all still there. Worse, in fact! Almost as though Nero's words were only taunting the man to provoke Nero further. There was a very slight change though, just slight enough to barely be noticeable; Nero could tell his expression was no longer lustful, despite his face remaining unchanged. Perhaps there was some lust, who knows, but it was no longer the predominating factor. It had been replaced by something else, a yearning of some sorts, but something he couldn't quite put his finger on. The best that he could explain it to himself is that Dante looks genuine now. What exactly that meant, Nero was unsure - genuine was just the first thing to come to his mind. Understandably, Nero was struck silent. How can he escape this situation without physically running away? If he couldn't deter Dante by insulting him, what in the hell else could he do? He could do nothing, in fact. 

Removing one hand from his pocket, the elder carefully, cautiously, laid his hand onto the forearm of the other man's devil bringer arm. His grip was soft at first, before he slowly tightened his grip into a comfortable firmness. His intention in doing this had several meanings, but primarily, he did it for his own safety. Should Nero reject him and decide to retaliate against him, it would be better if Dante could disarm the main thing that could harm him. He did not want to end up with another broken jaw, after all. But why would he reject him? Surely Nero wants him to. It's late at night. He intentionally isolated them from the others. He thanked him. Now, of course, Dante has misread Nero's actions before - but he won't make the same mistake again by surprising him. That's too risky. Instead, he'll make his intentions obvious. If Nero does not protest, then he shall proceed. And so he did just that. Seeing that Nero was not becoming angry from being touched, in fact, his body had froze and stiffened from shock, Dante stepped forward ever so slightly. They were only a foot away to begin with, but he wanted closer. Gingerly placing his other hand on the man's waist, he paused momentarily to see if this action would cause a reaction. Yet, nothing happened. He remained stiff and unmoving, almost as though he was afraid - though, of course, this is a preposterous idea, Nero just simply didn't know how to respond. He never has been good at knowing what to do in these situations - not even with Kyrie. He took his momentary pause to feel him. Not in movement, though; his hand remained where he had placed it, but instead he took the time to enjoy just feeling his hand on his body. Something he had not achieved before today. All the while, Dante maintained eye contact with him, the smirk on his face unaltered. He began to lean his head towards him, but stopped for just a few milliseconds, just to make sure Nero was aware of what he's going to do. Seeing that the man before him did not shy away, did not turn his head, and didn't even look away from him - in fact, perhaps, even softened up just a tad, Dante took that as him giving him the go-ahead. In one fluid, quick motion, he pulled Nero gently up against himself, closed his eyes, and closed the space between their lips. 

Now, I could go on about how much love the two felt for one another through this kiss, as though the physical interaction was a huge eye opener for both parties into the magical experience of love. But I would not be telling the truth. Neither one suddenly fell in love with the other, as though this was some magical fairy tale ending in a Disney film, where the prince kisses the princess and all is well in the kingdom again. The result of this kiss was not the realization of love, but the beginnings of trust and commitment. Some would argue this is the foundation for love, but I am no psychologist, I cannot make that call. Regardless, the first kiss can be very telling about a person. If they are harsh, tightly grabbing you with a firm grip, they may have a controlling personality, holding you firmly so you may not escape their grasp. If they go too fast and try sticking their tongues down your throat before you even have a chance to just enjoy the contact between you and them, chances are they are not kissing for the sake of kissing - kissing to them is merely the act they have to perform in order to get to their ultimate goal. Dante, however, was neither of these. He was gentle, yet firm. He held Nero so that they touched, but not tightly enough to where he could not escape. He wasn't slow, but he wasn't quick. His right hand, which had previously been on Nero's devil bringer, took its time moving up the man's arm, feeling his arm every step of the way, eventually reaching and caressing his jaw as his fingertips lie in his snowy hair. Most surprisingly - to Nero, perhaps, who was fully prepared to attack if such an event happened - he did not even try to rudely invade his mouth. His hands stayed within acceptable areas and no attempt was made to convince Nero to do otherwise. No, he knew his boundaries it seems, and was content with appropriate touching and a simple kiss. Well, not a _simple_ kiss, in that there was nothing particularly extraordinary about it, but a lasting, _passionate_ kiss that was meant to invoke feeling, rather than as a tool to persuade into sex. In all honesty, it was surprising to both parties involved. Nero, knowing Dante was fully capable of being a good kisser due to a previous uninvited incident, did not know that Dante was capable of kissing purely for enjoyment, as he is fairly certain Dante has never initiated kissing without intending to bed the person he kisses soon after. Dante, on the other hand, was surprised for the same reason himself. He knew that Nero is capable of meaningful, unsexual kisses - after all, he's seen the few times Nero and Kyrie kissed in public - but himself? He wasn't so sure. As Nero would suspect, he's never kissed just for the hell of it. He's an amazing kisser, that much he's been told plenty of times, and he's well experienced in doing so. But you do not kiss someone you care about in the same way you kiss a whore, so to speak. With Nero, he knew he would have to be endearing, slow, passionate, yet unsexual, to convince him to start being more open with him. To start trusting him. Being unsexual is practically against Dante's very nature and so this presented an unique issue - or challenge, you might say - to achieving such a kiss. Failure would mean a huge set back to their relationship. Even this, though, presented its own issue to Dante. In a way, he wanted their relationship to fail. Failure means nobody, and by nobody he means Mundus, will be able to target Nero just to hurt Dante. Yet, also, he didn't want them to fail. Perhaps it's just the human in him talking, but he doesn't want to end up alone. Nobody does. He's happy how he is, he really is, but he can't help but wonder if there could be more in his life. In the end, his human side won. He knew he had achieved in acting out the unsexual kiss he had intended on, as when they did finally pull apart, he could actually see the surprise on the other man's face. Upon Nero opening his eyes, perhaps a moment or two after Dante had, he saw him quickly scan Dante's face, his mouth ever so slightly agape, as if checking to make sure he was really Dante. Realizing he was indeed not an imposture, he made eye contact with him, though of course Dante had been doing so the whole time. His mouth closed fully then and a smile formed on his face. It was at that moment that Dante realized he had actually been smiling ever since they pulled apart.

"Happy birthday, babe." He said softly, to which Nero's smile widened.

For a moment, they stayed like this, smiling and looking at one another, before hearing someone vomit loudly about 30 feet behind Dante, at the end of the line of carnival stands. Immediately, both tore their gazes away from each other to look at the source of the noise, their smiles and content expressions replaced with confusion and surprise at hearing such a rude noise after having been previously relaxed. There, they saw Jack, his head hanging completely in a trashcan, having clearly lost the fight with his stomach. At this, Nero chuckled and rolled his eyes as Dante removed his hands from the man's waist and face, chuckling lightly as well. Following Nero, they approached Jack, who was still hanging off of the side of the trashcan, groaning and moaning with his eyes shut.

"You okay there?" Nero questioned.

"I… I think I'm dying.." Jack managed to grumble out before hurling again. Comfortingly, Nero patted Jack's back, as even though he knows Jack could've completely avoided this situation, he couldn't help but feel bad for the idiot.

"You'll be fine." Nero said as he patted, before he stopped doing so and simply left his hand on his back.

"Where's your babysitter?" Dante joked, referring to Willow, as he crossed his arms against his chest. Rather than replying verbally, as he appears to not have the mental capacity to do so, he used his thumb to point behind himself, towards where the carnival entrance would be.

"C'mon, are you able to move now?" Nero asked. Groaning, he shook his head side to side, and so all three men waited there for another minute, before Jack suddenly stood back up straight without warning them that he's ready to go now. Clutching his stomach with a queasy look on his face, he turned around and began heading back towards where he came from, with Nero by his side to physically support him. Following close behind the two was Dante, ready to catch Jack in case he trips or loses his balance. Eventually, in silence, they reach the carnival entrance, where Willow was waiting for them. Upon seeing them, Willow rushed up to them, shouting as he did so.

"Where the hell did you go, Jack! You suddenly run off while I'm getting us a taxi and expect me to know where you went?!"

"Went to find trash can… I could feel it coming…" Was about all Jack was able to mumble out.

"You could feel it coming but couldn't tell me so!" Willow yelled as he gently took Jack from Nero, replacing his spot and slowly leading Jack towards the same white SUV they came in, which had pulled up not too far away. "You could have avoided all of this if you were capable of not stuffing your face every time you eat! I swear, it's like I'm…" Willow continued to lecture him, though Jack likely was not even attempting to listen.

"Hey," Dante spoke up as he placed his hands in his pockets, prompting Nero too look away from Willow and Jack and at the man beside him instead. "I had fun. Let's do it again sometime, alright?" He said with a smirk and a wink. He watched Nero for just long enough to see him scoff and roll his eyes, though he did have a smile on his face. Then, Dante turned around and began walking towards his bike, still smirking to himself.

"Hey, wait!" Nero called moments later, though Dante was already at his motorcycle since it was not far from the entrance. He turned around to indicate to Nero that he was listening.

"You didn't say when you'd be back." Nero said as he approached him.

"Oh, uhh…" Dante said, before he looked away from him, trying to think up what his schedule might be for the next few days. Shrugging, he said "I can be back on Wednesday? Probably." Smiling, Nero responded.

"Alright, see you then." He stood there, smiling at him, for just a couple more moments before he turned and began to walk towards the SUV. "Probably." he added as he walked away. Chuckling and shaking his head, Dante turned back towards his bike, got on, and by the time he was pushing the bike out to leave, the SUV was already gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I had particular issues with this chapter. I'm sure I've mentioned it before but I am not a romantic. I don't do romance well, or at least it doesn't flow for me. I spent FOREVER trying to figure out how to describe the kiss because of the message I was trying to convey with it. You can tell exactly when I decided when I realized I couldn't do it through the traditional means of describing the physical act when I began that paragraph where I basically frankly said no, they did not immediately fall in love like this is some cheesy romance film, but instead began to trust one another, which I find to be more important than quickly falling in love. I believe that paragraph is the first time that I, as the author, ever directly addresses the reader instead of using first person narrative. I feel like it's still missing something, but it's the best that I can do for now! Let me know what you guys think!
> 
> *This is more of a reference to DMC4 than a simple anecdote. The scene where Nero is escaping from within the Savior's heart reminds me WAY too much of a vaginal birth and if I were him, I would probably have nightmares where I was being rebirthed afterwards!
> 
> **I wish I could find where I read this, but if my memory is correct, this is true, Nero was found in a black blanket with "Nero" on it in golden embroidery. I remember reading this on an official Capcom website about DMC4, before the reboot was even a thought, but I've been unable to find it since. 
> 
> Also, Nero's step mother is just a crazy lady - there is meaning behind why, but no, this is not a story where everything is ironic. Nero is not "the chosen one" or Jesus. She's just crazy.


	25. Movie Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! I just want to say (another) quick thank you for everyone's continued support. Your bookmarks, kudos, and whatever words you have to say in regards to this story mean so much to me! Anywho, I know this has been long overdo, but as you all know I like a slow building story, and so if the last chapter wasn't clear enough I'll go ahead and say it: There's gonna be a lot more focus on their relationship from now on. Hope you all enjoy!

The evening of October 29th, a Wednesday.

Dante had arrived back into the town of Fortuna earlier in the day, just as he had told Nero he would do. As this is not a Sunday, Nero had been coming and going regularly throughout the peak hours of the day, and in fact wasn't actually at headquarters when Dante arrived. While the kid was gone, Dante would preoccupy himself by reading magazines, watching TV, etc. Basically, the same things he usually did to fill the time when the three main people he knew in Fortuna were gone. The day was much like any other normal, routine day. Nero, despite what had happened that Friday night, still retained his reserved and sometimes standoffish behavior around the older man when he would come back to headquarters between jobs. However, Dante had a funny feeling that this was mostly just a front that Nero was maintaining due to the other two men, Jack and Willow. After all, when Nero did first return and found Dante waiting for him in the lounge area of headquarters, he seemed quite happy to see the other man, and even gave him a warm welcoming smile as he greeted Dante with a simple 'hey'. Dante, of course, returned Nero's smile with one of his own - though, his smile was much more cocky and the tone he used to say 'hey' back was much more alluring. He was certain that Nero was going to blush ever so lightly in response, just as he had hoped, but unfortunately Jack came busting into the room immediately after and thus distracted Nero. Ever since then, either Jack or Willow was always around when Nero was, with their constant presence likely explaining Nero's apparent relapse in attitude towards him.

As for right now, the time was approximately 7 o'clock, and the day was beginning to wind down. Jobs were becoming lesser and farther in between, and so the three men took to joining Dante in the lounge indefinitely until another job springs up. Jack and Nero were watching some show on the television screen, which Dante has to admit was funny from time to time, but he did not know the name of the show. Jack and Nero had situated themselves on the same couch, though they were at opposite sides to allow each other more room. Willow was on another couch, though some could argue it was more of a loveseat, sitting with his legs crisscrossed on the couch and a laptop on his lap. Dante himself was on the last couch in the room, his legs outstretched and crossed at his ankles on the cushions as he leaned up against the arm of the couch, reading the magazine he held up in his hand. For the most part, they had been enjoying each other's company in silence, as Willow had said he was going to try and catch up on some work he needed to do online and Dante was reading. Occasionally, Jack or Nero would say something to the other, usually in response to something that had happened on the show they were watching. Dante didn't much take notice of what they were saying since he wasn't watching the show with them, minus the times he's briefly looked up from his magazine to look at the TV, but he did take notice the next time Jack spoke up. 

"Ugh." Jack groaned, looking away from the TV screen sharply. He threw his neck back so that his head laid on the back of the couch, his face was pointed towards the ceiling. He looked quite displeased.

"Hm?" Nero hummed questioningly.

"I'm bored."

"Sounds like your issue." He said, not really paying Jack much attention. A few seconds ticked by before the other man spoke up again. 

"You wanna go scouting for chicks? Maybe get laid for once?" This, of course, was pure jesting by Jack, knowing Nero would decline.

"No."

"Wanna get food then?"

"No, I ate not too long ago." Nero systematically shut down his offers, causing Jack to be stumped for yet another few seconds, before he thinking up another idea of what they could do.

"What about playing a game?"

"A game?" Turning his head towards Jack for the first time, the idea of playing a game piquing the young man's curiosity. 

"Yeah." He replied, now smirking, satisfied to have gained his attention.

"What kind of game?" Nero asked.

"Well we still have that old console hooked up to the TV, right?"

"Yeah, I think. Probably just got pushed back behind the DVDs." Without actually telling him of his plan, Jack quickly stood up off the couch and kneeled in front of the TV, rearranging all the various items that are on the entertainment center that the TV is standing on. Crossing his arms skeptically, Nero only watched him. Eventually, after several minutes, an older video game console came into sight.

"Ah ha! It is still here!" Jack exclaimed, proud to have been able to find it behind all the junk that had forced the machine in the deepest part inside of the entertainment center. Dusting it off by both blowing on it and wiping it with his hands, Jack deemed it still potentially operable and continued on to begin hooking it back up to the television screen.

"You still haven't said what game though."

"We only have one game for this console." Jack told him, pointing at a disc sitting next to the TV, though it was too far away for Nero to read it.

"Okay, what kind of game it is?"

"A racing game!"

"Racing game?" Nero groaned as he crossed his arms.

"Yeah, it'll be fun!" He told him before looking toward Willow. "Hey, you wanna join us?" Jack asked. Looking up from his computer, he stared at Jack for a few seconds, apparently contemplating the idea, before shrugging and setting his laptop beside him on the loveseat.

"Sure."

"Awesome." Jack said enthusiastically as he turned his attention back to setting up the console. It only took him a minute or two to do this though, and after everything was successfully hooked up, turned on, and ready to go, he began grabbing out the controllers from within the abyss of the entertainment center. "Ah, okay, one for me…" He spoke to himself, tossing a controller onto his spot on his and Nero's couch. "One for you.." He said as he tossed another controller at Nero, who somehow managed to catch Jack's blind throw at him. "One for you," Tossing the controller at Willow, he actually looked up at him so he would not miss him, before also looking towards Dante and tossing the last controller at him. "And one for you." Not expecting to be tossed something, his devilishly fast reaction time came in handy, as he dropped his magazine in his lap just in time to catch the object thrown at him.

"You want me to play?" Dante emphasized 'me' with skeptically furrowed eyebrows and a very small smirk.

"Yeah, don't you know how to play?" Nero teased as Jack plopped back down onto the couch after grabbing up his controller.

"Uhh… well, no, actually." He said with a chuckle as he slowly sat up, placing his feet back onto the floor rather than up on the couch. Surprising as this may be, but no, he had never played video games before. They're too expensive and, in Dante's opinion, why would he waste his limited amount of money on a stimulation when he could easily just go out and, you know, actually fight and kill monsters in real life? Smirking widely, Nero responded to this new information.

"Aww." He patronized. "Here, I'll help you out." He said in a tone akin to one that you'd use when talking to a child. Smirking more now, Dante was intrigued to see how this will play out. "Okay, you see, hold it in your hand like this," demonstrating, as though he was teaching a toddler, Nero held the controller firmly in his hands, with his index fingers on both triggers. "Alright?" 

"Okay." Dante said, deciding to play along. He could clearly see how Nero was holding the controller, but instead chose to hold only the handles and not place his fingers on the triggers.

"No no, you need to have your fingers up on the triggers, like this." He wiggled his index fingers on the triggers for emphasis. Pretending to watch carefully, Dante nodded, then looked at his own controller, and then promptly placed his index fingers on the face of the controller, near the buttons, rather than the triggers.

"Dante!" Nero exclaimed, clearly seeing his act of playing dumb.

"What? I'm sorry, I don't understand… it's too complicated, you young folks, y'know, you have all this fancy technology, and I just, I just can't keep up!" Dante feigned, looking as though he's genuinely confused.

"C'mon Nero, go help him out so we can get started!" Jack told him, suspecting Dante was more than likely pretending, but he wanted to go ahead and start playing. Nero looked at Jack indignantly, before looking over at Dante, then looking at Jack again with disdain, physically showing his dislike of wanting to go help him. In response, Jack waved him off towards Dante, nonverbally telling him to just go and help. Sighing heavily, Nero stood up reluctantly, and it was in this moment that Dante's confused appearance suddenly switched to one of victory. Moving towards him and sitting down of to the left of him, Nero refused to make eye contact with him as he continued to try and 'teach' him. "Just move your fingers here." He pointed at the triggers on Dante's controller. Looking down at the controller, he acted like he still didn’t understand. Taking a deep, long breath in, Nero then gave in, realizing what Dante wanted him to do; realizing he was being played. "Okay, fine." he huffed before grabbing Dante's right index finger, placing it on the right trigger, then grabbed his left index finger and placed it on the left trigger. Finally looking up at him, he could see his satisfied smirk, though he only scowled at Dante, knowing he just wanted the physical contact - though, of course, the other two were none the wiser. 

"Don't worry about all the buttons and stuff, you'll get it as we start playing."

"Gotcha." Dante confirmed with him as he looked towards the screen. Though he broke eye contact with the man beside him, he could feel him scowling at him for a few more seconds before he too refocused his attention.

In the beginning, all four men were fairly quiet. The occasional grunt at losing their place, perhaps an irritated sigh whenever one of them lost the race, but nothing too serious. They were all there just to have a good time without competing with each other too hard. In an ideal world, this calm would have prevailed. But, considering the incredibly competitive nature of Dante and Nero alone, let alone the others, chaos had broken out by the time the 4th round started, and it was now every man for himself.

"I _swear_ , if you even **think** about passing me, again, I will…" Nero threatened, though he wasn't able to think up an actual threat, due to the distraction of the game.

"Yeah? You will…?" Dante taunted, a smirk on his face. He had caught on pretty quickly, and even found himself winning most of the races so far. Right now, Nero was actually winning, with Dante mere inches behind him. Zig-zaging back and forth, Nero desperately was trying to keep Dante behind him, blocking each of his attempts to pass him. Unfortunately for him, Dante knows very well that Nero is very competitive, to the point that he will get angry if he loses several times in a row. When he gets angry, he gets sloppy and makes mistakes. That is exactly what Dante is hoping for. 

"I'll never speak to you again!" Was all he could come up with as his car darted to the left, thwarting Dante's pass yet again. Mischievously, his smirk broadened as he noticed the young man getting too paranoid, as they were reaching closer and closer to the finish line. If Dante even slightly shifted to the left or to the right, Nero would jerk over to that direction, trying to anticipate his moves. It was clear what Dante had to do. With the slight tilt of the joystick, his car shifted to the right, and, of course, Nero's car quickly jerked to that direction. However, as soon as he shifted to the right, Dante swiftly moved to the left. Since Nero had overcorrected to the right, this left Dante plenty of time and space to pass him to the left. Nero was left sitting there, mouth slightly agape in shock that he was duped yet again, as Dante's smirk only got wider.

10 rounds in. It was approaching Nero's bedtime, so it was announced this would be the last round, lest he wake up grouchy the next morning, something nobody wanted to happen. Surprisingly, Dante had been taking it particularly easy this round, letting up on the kid for once. Though, that wasn't saying much, because both he, Nero, and Jack were all bunched up at the front anyways, while Willow lagged behind in the back. Willow clearly didn't take this whole racing thing as seriously as the others, instead preferring to be cautious on the turns and not go too fast on the straight paths. So, really, it usually just came down to the other three men. Nero had clawed his way to first place once more, something he has been able to do for the last two rounds as well. The question now, though, was whether or not he could keep his placing as he did in those other rounds. The finish line was in sight, but Nero couldn't celebrate yet - Jack had somehow been able to pass Dante, who is fairly close behind Nero, and is now tailgating Nero. All they have left to do was one more U-turn and Nero will win. 

"No." Nero sternly stated as Jack tried to pass him, only to be blocked.

"Yes." He replied as he tried again to pass him.

" _No._ " Another block.

" _Yes._ " Another attempt to pass.

" _No!_ " Nero said more loudly, becoming more irritated the closer they got to the U-turn. This time, Jack did not respond. In the blink of an eye, it was over for poor Nero. Before he even knew what had happened, he was spinning rapidly away from the racetrack with no way to correct himself. In a matter of milliseconds, he found himself in the ditch. Jack, that cheeky bastard, had done a pit maneuver on him. Somehow, Dante had missed colliding with Nero's car, therefore saving his new spot of second place rather than going down with him. Jack was smirking. Nero was in shock. Silence ensued. Moments passed, the two remaining cars had past the turn and were on a straight path to the finish line, leaving Nero in the dust. Jack was becoming more and more visually excited as they got closer - he had only won one round so far. With Nero in the ditch, Willow way behind them, and Dante too far back to catch up in time, Jack's victory was imminent and undeniable. But Dante, by looking at the minimap that showed the other player's movements, could see that Nero had other plans. After landing in the ditch, Nero was resolved with the fact that he was going to lose, there was no way for him to catch up in time. But that doesn't mean Jack had to win. As fast as he could, he raced out of the ditch, illegally crossed the median so he could skip the U-turn and get to the other side of the track, and then collided directly with Jack. Both cars ended up spun out as Dante whizzed right by them, unintentionally stealing first place after having first-hand witnessed Nero's revenge. 

"OhmyGodNeroyoujustkilledme!" Jack said so quickly due to his mixed emotions that it could barely be understood what he said. Now, technically, Jack did not get "killed" in the sense his car was dead, but rather, he just killed him winning the round. "How could you do that?! I was this close to winning!" As Jack had a meltdown, Nero started laughing. He realized that, by skipping across the median, and therefore straying from the designated path, he would be automatically put in last place. But that didn't matter. He just wanted to see Jack's hopes get crushed, just as his did. 

"Man, that was harsh." Dante told Nero with a grin. He had to admit, he was impressed that Nero chose a way to creatively make Jack lose the race in the game, rather than physically getting up and beating him over the head, as he figured would happen. 

"Alright alright, that's enough of that for now." Willow said, chuckling as he observed Jack still rambling on about how he should've won fair and square. 

"Yeah, I gotta get to bed." Nero said, his laughter having died down to just a smirk by now. He stood up off of the couch, grabbing Dante's controller away from him without asking as he did. He proceeded to go to the television, so he may put up both of their controllers.

"I guess I'm going to bed too then." Dante said with a chuckle.

"What? Oh, no I-" Nero stuttered as stood back up after having kneeled down to put them away. "You just usually go to bed when I do." He did have a point. If Dante didn't go to bed when Nero did, they wouldn't spend any time around each other. If Dante goes to bed later than him, then Nero is fast asleep once he goes to bed. Likewise, Dante won’t get up until afternoon if he stays up late, and though he still refuses to get up early in the morning like Nero, he'll miss when Nero usually comes back to HQ for lunch at around 11am. If he misses both of those times, then they're never alone, and that's just no fun. As Dante stood up off the couch, indicating he's gonna go with him, Nero continued. "You don't have to go to bed when I do." He insisted.

"Nah it's alright, I might as well hit the hay early." 

"Alright, if you say so." Nero shrugged. "Night, Jack." He said with a smirk as he walked passed Jack.

"…can't believe it, I was so close, and it was cruelly taken…" Jack rambled on to himself, not even hearing Nero or processing that either of the men were leaving. As the two men walked away, towards Nero's room, Dante remembered something.

"Ah damn, I forgot I wanted to grab a bite to eat real quick." Dante said as he stopped walking, trying to decide if he still wants to go back towards the kitchen. Nero stopped as well, half way turning around towards Dante. "You want me to grab you something too?" He offered, but Nero waved him off.

"I'm good." He verbally confirmed.

"Okay babe, I'll be back." Dante said before doing a 180, then walking back towards the area where they came from. He had said 'babe' without even realizing what he was saying until after it had already been said, and was surprised he didn't get an angry yell back at him. But, then again, this is a public space, and Nero doesn't like drawing attention to those sorts of things in public. 

Upon reaching the kitchen, he found that there were already a few Order members gathered inside, all grabbing food for themselves too. As soon as he entered the room though, all their laughter-filled conversations stopped abruptly, and he was suddenly at the center of their attention. A bit thrown back by this sudden change, he stood there for a silent second or two before speaking. "Hey, there any food left in there for a sandwich?" He said with a grin as he causally walked to the fridge.

"Oh, um, yes sir." One of the members spoke.

"Sir?" Dante said rhetorically with a chuckle as he opened the fridge door. "Boy, I haven’t been called "sir" in a while." He joked with the guy as he grabbed out various condiments and meat stuffs for his sandwich. 

"Sorry si-I mean, Dante." He guy said, sounding a bit on edge. 

"Hey I don't mind, people just usually don't call me sir. Jackass or asshole, y'know, sure, but not sir." He joked idly, closing the door and grabbing the loaf of bread from on top of the fridge, though he noticed the people in the room chuckled in a way that was a bit nervous. The room went silent after for a few moments as he made his sandwich, which was a bit uncomfortable for Dante, as he could feel the tension and several sets of eyes staring at his back. "So, uh, any plans for tonight?" He spoke, just to break the tension.

"Oh no, we um… we just got off of our shift, we were just taking a little break before heading off to bed so we can be well rested for tomorrow's missions." A different man spoke this time in a militaristic fashion.

"Nothin' wrong with relaxing." He said, knowing he surely does more than his fair share of being lazy after missions. This was followed by silence again, though this time Dante just endured it, as his sandwich would be done about a half minute later and he didn't find enough interest in this mostly one-sided conversation to try and continue it. "Take care." Dante said to the room with a smirk and a wave before heading out of the room, though the men, almost in unison, responded back with "Goodnight sir", as well as them realizing their mistake in saying "sir" immediately after and trying to fix it by saying his actual name. Though a bit creeped out by the odd encounter, it didn't bother him that much. Some people are just more socially awkward than others. Eventually he reached Nero's room on the other side of the building, entering it after hearing no response after knocking. He rightly figured Nero was taking a shower, like he usually does either at night or in the morning every day. Turning on the television in his room, he sat down on the end of his bed, flipping through the channels as he munched on his sandwich. Ten or so minutes later, Dante is finishing up his sandwich as Nero exits the bathroom, a towel still draped over his head as he rubbed the material against his head. He, of course, is wearing his normally modest comfortable clothes he uses to sleep in. 

"Have a good shower?" Dante asked in a casual tone, though he wore a smirk, knowing Nero can't see him as he is drying his hair. He glanced over at a nearby digital clock sitting on one of the nightstands. 

"Mhm."

"I see you took a few minutes more than usual." He mentioned as he turned his attention back to the television, his smirk being held firmly in place. The wouldn't usually be worth mentioning, but Dante noticed that Nero always takes exactly 12 minutes to shower. Today he took 15. 

"No, I didn't get in as soon as I got here." Finished with drying, he pulled the towel off his head and tossed it towards the hamper in the corner of the room near him. He missed, but didn't feel bothered enough to go over and place it in the hamper. 

"Right." His tone was skeptical, causing Nero to eye him with suspicion himself. It took him a few silent moments, but eventually Dante's suggestive smirk is what led him to conclude what Dante meant by what he's saying. "You think I-?" He stopped and scoffed, too disgusted to continue with his own sentence. "I don't do that." He said indignantly. 

"Yeah right!" Dante laughed. But when he was met by dead silence and a long, deep glare from Nero, he realized he wasn't joking. He knew that Nero is very conservative with that kind of stuff, and he's probably even hinted a time or two that he doesn't partake in anything sexual, but to have seriously never even relieved his needs himself? That's just not possible. "Hey, look, there's nothing wrong with it. Completely natural." He tried to convince him. Being met this time with Nero rolling his eyes and a 'if you say so' kind of expression on his face as he prepared to get into bed, Dante spoke up again, this time trying to play the 'relationship card' to get him to admit to it. "C'mon, we're supposed to be honest with each other, right?" To this Nero stopped what he was doing to give Dante a solid three second look, trying to convey how idiotic he thinks this conversation is, before sitting down in his bed. "Do you really mean to tell me that you, a healthy 20 year old **guy** , has never 'charmed the snake?'" At this point he was just in pure disbelief - clearly Nero must just be denying this because he wants to save face. For a young guy to have never had sex is one thing. But for said guy to have never had sex with himself, completely ignoring the raging hormone levels all young men experience? It's no wonder why he's so damn moody. 

"..Done what now?" Nero questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Y'know, petting the lizard? Polishing the helmet? Cleaning the rifle? Whipping up some sour cream?" Though looking thoroughly horrified and disgusted, Nero couldn't help but to laugh a bit at his creativity.

"That's disgusting! Just how many different euphemisms do you know?" 

"Ahhh… probably too many." Dante said honestly with a chuckle, which Nero joined him in. He thought about continuing to try and get an honest answer out of him, but he accurately decided it's a hopeless endeavor. So, rather than pursuing the matter, he moved on and decided to let the kid finally go to sleep, since he has been lying in bed waiting for the elder to quit talking. Turning off the television screen, Dante stood up off of his bed, went over to Nero's dresser, and grabbed out a shirt and sweatpants - clothes that he lets him borrow to sleep in. He then went into the bathroom, where he stayed for approximately fifteen minutes due to changing clothes and usual getting ready for bed routine. After exiting the bathroom, he plopped down on top of the covers of his bed, letting out a long, satisfied exhalation as he put his hands behind his head and blissfully relaxed on the bed. He didn't plan on falling asleep yet, but he just had to take a few seconds to appreciate just how comfortable his bed here is. At home, all he has is his creaky, dingy old mattress that likely should've been thrown out ages ago - something he'd gladly do if he had the money to buy another one, considering how expensive the better mattresses can be. Seconds turn into minutes, and Dante can begin to feel himself slowly slipping into the dark abyss of slumber.

"…How many have there been in your life?" Nero spoke in a normal tone, though to Dante's half-asleep ears, having been adjusted to the quiet room, he sounded more like he was yelling.

"Eh?" Dante groaned as his dulled senses returned to fully functioning again, opening his eyes reluctantly and turning his head towards Nero.

"Women." Nero explained simply. "How many have there been?" His tone wasn't one that expressed he was overly concerned, mad, or otherwise upset. In fact, he didn't even have his eyes open - instead, he was just seemingly idly asking a question out of curiosity.

"Uhh.. Tonight? None that I know of." Dante joked with a smirk, though he knows he's doomed. This prediction was confirmed when Nero opened his eyes and looked over at him in an irritated fashion, clearly wanting a real answer. "C'mon.." He said as his smirk quickly faded into a look of resignation "you already know you won't like my answer." 

"Doesn't mean I shouldn't know."

"Well yeah, but can't you just wait a few more months then ask me?"

"In a few months? You mean when either I'm sick of dealing with your bullshit anyways or else I'll be too invested to end things over how many people you've slept with?" Nero caught onto his scheme.

"Damn, you're good." Dante complimented with a smirk. Though Nero rolled his eyes, he couldn't hide the little smirk on his face, perhaps a bit proud to have outsmarted the fox.

"..If I say 'please,' will you tell me?" He asked moments later, since Dante still wasn't offering up a real answer. Laughing a little at Nero's tenacity, Dante responded.

"If I actually knew, I'd probably tell ya."

"You really don't know?" Nero's skepticism is understandable. How can somebody as egotistical as Dante not remember how many times he's gotten laid? 

"Not really."

"Not even an estimate?"

"Well.." Dante said before he paused, trying to actually think up a genuine estimate. He didn’t want to lie to him, after all Nero does have a point, he has a right to know what kind of a person he's getting involved with and who all they've been involved with. But, he also didn't want to give him a truthful answer. Not because he's ashamed, feels guilty, or otherwise regretful, but because he's fairly certain Nero won't be thrilled to know he's with somebody that has quite a long sexual history, especially given his own lack of history. "What do you think?"

"I don't know, never really thought of a specific number." He admitted. "Like, 100?" Dante's silence afterwards, combined with his pretending to refuse to look at Nero despite the young man looking at him, told Nero his estimate was too low. "…..200?" He offered up another guess, then let out a sharp exhale out of surprise from Dante's continued silence. " _More than 200_?" He questioned.

"I mean, like I said I don't really know.." Dante chuckled. "But yeah, probably." Thinking for a few seconds afterwards, he then spoke up again afterwards. "I know I first started when I was 17." He said, referring to losing his virginity. "And that one time was probably all I got for that year.." As Dante said his thoughts out loud, Nero just watched and listened to him, finding that observing him when he's actually having to think hard about something is entertaining, considering the man rarely has to put much effort into figuring things out normally. "18… probably no more than three times… twice when I was 19…." Dante continued. "At least a dozen times when I was 20. After that year, uhh…. Maybe… once every two weeks?" He questioned to himself. "Yeah that sounds about right. Sometimes once a week, sometimes just once a month, depending on how many jobs I had to do."

"And that was until?" Nero asked. 

"About 6 months ago." He responded. 

"Okay, so, one plus three, plus two, then twelve is.. 18. You're 34, so once every two weeks for 13 years is.." Nero paused as he tried to mentally do the math. "Uhhh… 338. That, plus 18, is 356." Wincing and closing his eyes, Dante prepared himself for the inevitable yelling lecture he is likely to receive for having slept with at least that many people, considering that high number was still likely a somewhat conservative number. After all, Dante himself was a bit surprised by this number as well, since it's not like he regularly went out looking for action every night or even every other night. Now, of course, that number didn't exclude people he may have slept with more than once in separate occasions, but it also didn't include all of his sexual encounters, just the ones that included actual sex. After several seconds of curious silence, Dante reopened his eyes, and, looking over at him in confusion, he realized why the air was quiet. Nero still didn't say anything, but he clearly wasn't angry. Instead, the dejected expression on his face as he blankly stared at an object in the room told Dante everything he needed to know - Nero was disappointed. And that made him feel worse than if the kid had just yelled at him. Unsure how to deal with the situation, Dante exhaled, closed his eyes, and looked up at the ceiling. About half a minute passed before Nero spoke again.

"What about for those 6 months?" He was curious because Dante simply said he was not as regular before; he never said he stopped. His tone now was a bit quieter, but otherwise uninformative on how he's taking the news. 

"Nothing, really." He too said more quietly than his normally loud tone, as he still feels bad. "Just started slowing down. Stopped altogether about 5 months ago. Well, except for that waitress." A few more moments of quiet.

"Do you know why?"

"Got bored. Wasn't as fun as it used to be." He remembers that he has told this to him before. "Guess that’s what happens when you're my age, eh?" He took a jab at himself, though he smirked to indicate he was just kidding. Figuring that was the end of that horrid conversation, Dante allowed himself to start relaxing again after a couple minutes of silence, his eyes closing once more. Though, he could hear Nero had gotten out of bed at some point and was moving about the room, probably to go use the restroom. Suddenly, without warning, he felt a large weight being added to his bed. More specifically, to his left side. Just about as quickly as he felt this did his eyelids spring back open and his head immediately turn to the left - to the source of the weight. There, he saw Nero, sitting on his bed and twisting around so that he can prop up a pillow that he had brought from his own bed. Utterly bewildered, Dante voiced his confusion.

"What're you doin'?" 

"Do you wanna watch a movie?" Nero asked, ignoring Dante's question. He looked over at him with a smile after having properly positioned his pillow behind himself, though he was still sitting up.

"I, umm… Yeah, sure." Dante replied, smiling back. Though he was still quite confused on why Nero had such a drastic change of heart, he certainly wasn't going to question it. 

"You pick." Nero told him as he handed him the remote he had in his hand.

"Alright." He confirmed as he took his hands off of the back of his head, grabbing the remote with his right hand and using his left hand to prop a pillow up underneath his head before finally resting on his own stomach. The remote now gone from his hand, Nero proceeded to lay down beside him, crossing his ankles as he did. Though he had laid down close to Dante, they were not actually touching, something that Nero had probably carefully planned on. Figuring Nero won't last long before he passes out, though he of course insisted he wouldn't, Dante chose a movie that was interesting, but if Nero did fall asleep, he wouldn't actually miss anything spectacular. Surprisingly, the kid held out for a while, but as time started going further and further past midnight, his desire for sleep eventually prevailed. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------

7:30am

Reemerging into reality, Dante inhaled deeply as his eyes opened up to the world around him once more. It wasn't until after he had rubbed his eyes with his only free hand that he was consciously aware that he was lying on his stomach, in the center of his bed, with his right arm pinned underneath himself. He had apparently fallen asleep at some point after Nero did, but before the movie ended. Though, when looking up at the television, he saw it had been turned off by someone that was not himself. Said someone was probably the man who had at one point been asleep next to him, but has since evidently left. Looking over at the clock on the nightstand, he could see that it was unbearably early. It was not that being well rested had woken him up - he still had at least a couple more hours before that would happen - but the fact that he needed to use the restroom. Rolling his weight over so he was on his back, he then systematically sat up then stood up off of the bed. Turning around so that he may walk in the direction of the bathroom, he noticed a familiar figure was already in there. Standing in front of the mirror above the sink, conveniently positioned so that Dante could see him but Nero could neither see him in his peripheral vision nor in the mirror, he could see the young man was slowly and carefully washing his devil bringer - or, rather, his right forearm. With his other hand he held a wash cloth, and using this paired with the running sink water, he was cleaning himself. Though, due to positioning, Dante could not see specifically how he was washing or what exactly he was doing. Apparently, this action required enough focus to where the young man paid no attention to Dante, either because he did not hear him or because he chose to ignore him. Curious, the elder approached him, quietly and cautiously. He paused in his movements whenever Nero would change positions, such as when he would move from washing to wringing out the cloth to make room for it to absorb clean water before going back once more to cleaning. Eventually, his patience was rewarded. 

Vigorously the young man scrubbed at his toughened, blue hide. You see, his devil bringer is very useful in battle, but it also gets **very** dirty. Over the course of a single day of jobs and hunting, his right forearm becomes caked in various materials and substances. Dirt, mud, blood, devil's tissues and guts, dirty water, splinters - you name it, it's likely to be stuck in his damned arm. Human skin is extremely different from demonic hide. Skin is slick, relatively smooth, and tends to repel most things, or at the very least whatever gets stuck to the skin can be easily removed. Demonic hide is nothing like this. It is roughly textured, therefore promoting the adhesion of whatever it comes into contact with. A daily shower takes care of a majority of the grime off of his arm, as well as loosens whatever did not come off, allowing Nero to simply wash his arm with a rag the next day to remove the rest from all the nooks and crannies in his hide. This is easier said than done though, and some stuff is harder to take off than others, such as demon's blood. He could easily just skip this quick morning cleanup, like he sometimes has to do when he's in a hurry, but he's learned from personal experience that not only is this shit harder to take off the longer it stays on, but his arm also begins emanating a disturbing smell. So, he endures this annoying task each and every day, time permitting. Generally, when he is cleaning his arm, he enters a kind of trance-like state, becoming fairly oblivious to his surroundings. This is purely due to the fact that he is having to examine his arm so closely. With his sight and smell heightened, his hearing dulls, and he is an easy target, though this is not too concerning to Nero since he spends only about 5-10 minutes cleaning his arm in the morning. Jobs have been a bit slow though, so this morning routine of his likely wasn't very necessary, but he did it regardless so as to not get out of the habit.

That is, until he felt arms quickly wrapping themselves around his waist from behind. Entering a full-blown panicked state of mind at this unwelcome, unwanted, and potentially deadly physical contact, with lightning-fast speeds Nero was standing up straight once more, having been hunched over his arm, and he was desperately fighting to free himself. In this moment, he seemed almost like an unbroken bronco attempting to fling off the intruder on his back; pushing, shoving, elbowing, and otherwise violent and desperate actions in his attempts to live. After all, the intruder has access to his stomach at the moment and can easily disembowel the man if so desired. Nero could hear a familiar voice say "Hey, hey! Calm down now!", but, of course, the adrenaline pumping through his veins as the person's grip tightened did not allow him to register that he knew the voice. Turning his head to the side to face his attacker probably no more than three seconds into the struggle - figuring if nothing else maybe he can bite it's face hard enough to startle it into letting him go - he saw the painfully recognizable face of the smirking asshole behind him. 

"For fuck's sake, Dante!" He said as his attempts to fight him off suddenly stopped, his panic and aggression turning into just pure aggression now that he no longer fears that he is trapped. 

"Whatcha doin'?" He innocently questioned, though his smirking was betraying his innocence. 

"What am I doing? Well I was having a peaceful moment before your dumb ass came along!" He said angrily as his intensely furrowed eyes looked away from him, his head turning to look back down at the sink in bridled rage. 

"Mmmm," he hummed, peering over his right shoulder now that Nero has turned his head away. "what about before that?" He was, of course, referring to Nero cleaning his arm. Nero looked like he was about to answer him, his mouth opening to speak, but he stopped short of actually saying anything. His eyes had moved from the sink to noticing the arms still firmly wrapped around him, a fact that he forgot about after the danger of injury had passed. 

"Get your hands off of me." 

"I just wanna hug."

"Get _off_!" Nero began to fight once more, though with less intensity at first, as he was merely uncomfortable with this situation rather than fighting for his life. Being the stronger and physically bulkier of the two, Dante had no issues keeping the man in his grip. He even began to chuckle some throughout the struggle - which only poured fuel onto Nero's fire.

"Babe, can I _please_ just get a hug? Just one?" He pleaded with the angry hybrid he was tightly holding - not out of perversion, but purely because he was fighting so hard.

"You said you would not touch me if I didn't approve, and _I don’t fucking approve_!" 

Over what seemed like an eternity, but was likely just a minute or two tops, Nero's anger tired itself out, and over time he fought less and less, until eventually he didn't fight at all anymore. However, he adamantly refused to look even near the direction of Dante's face - his head strictly turned towards as far left as he can turn - and was even more adamant about not speaking. A normal person with sanity would be concerned with this, but yet, Dante was not. He was not chuckling anymore, and he wasn't even smirking anymore. Instead, he was smiling as he watched the stubborn little fireball before him, though said fire could not see him. Despite the venom in the youngers voice at he had tried to free himself, and for that matter, despite his violent attempts at obtaining freedom, Dante knew he was holding back. Nero fought him, but not in a way that would actually get him free. If he was truly that desperate for freedom, there were many different things Nero could have done. His arms were free, so he could've easily reached back and choked Dante or even of tried to gouge out his eyes, if need be. Instead he chose the futile path of trying to pry off Dante's fingers one-by-one. His legs were also free, and because of Dante's slightly spread stance behind him to ensure he stayed balanced in the struggle, Nero could have very easily and very quickly of delivered a swift backwards kick to his no-no area. That would have guaranteed a quick end to the struggle without actually putting in that much effort. He didn't even threaten to leave him if he didn't let go.

In other words, Dante had a feeling this was all a front. A show that he is not weak and nothing more. There is likely also a true desire to not be touched by him, but it may not be nearly as strong as Nero would want him to think. That being said, Dante decided to test this theory. Softly, he placed his chin on the younger's shoulder, which was easy enough to do due to their similar heights. No change in the other man was seen. Slowly, he loosened his grip on him as well, enough to where his grip was no tighter than any other gentle, lose embrace. Still no response. This must mean Nero has "shut down" to him. The meaning behind this is exactly like when a toddler "shuts down" after not getting what he or she wants. Instead of continuing to fight, they shut down, deciding to refuse to move or respond in any way or shape to the one who wronged them. Well, if the kid really is that mad at him and he's royally fucked up, he might as well enjoy their potentially last contact together. Semi-burying his face into the nook between his shoulder blade and the base of his neck, Dante closed his eyes, and retightened his grip just a bit more so that it was more of a comfortably close hug - well, comfortable for him at least. 

Upon feeling the prickles of Dante's stubble rub against his neck as he buried his face, Nero was slightly startled. It was odd to have such a course feeling go across the sensitive skin of the neck; "odd" not meaning an oddly sexually arousing sensation, but just simply being out of the norm type of feeling. The jarring feeling seemed to have snapped him out of his red vision, as he was now just curious to what the hell the old man is doing. Turning his head, he could see now that he has a new white-haired parasite settled between his shoulder and neck. Irritated and thoroughly annoyed, Nero looked away with a roll of his eyes as he simultaneously crossed his arms across his chest, giving up on being able to pry of the pervert's hands. This went on for a solid fifteen seconds, allowing enough time for Nero to simmer down to his normal levels of anger. Now he was just getting bored with having to stand there, waiting on him to eventually let go. His eyes began to wander around the room while he ignored the now slightly painful prickling on his neck each time he even barely moved his neck muscles. At one point, he caught sight of the mirror in front of them. He had been purposely ignoring it the entire time, refusing to even see just the idiot's reflection. But now that he had seen the image it reflected, he couldn't help but stare at it. It was a weird, completely foreign image he was looking at - that's why his eyes were now drawn to it. In the image, he sees himself. More specifically, he sees himself being affectionately held by someone that he regularly wants to smash in the face of. He could see his intentions were, at least not obviously, not sexual. He could feel that only his chest was pressed up against his back - not surprising, as this was hard to avoid due to his large chest - and he could see that his hands weren't even technically on him. His arms were wrapped snuggly around his waist, but Dante had placed his hands on his own forearms due to his arms overlapping, off of the young man's body. Suddenly, as he observed their reflection, he felt a bit guilty. The man just wants a hug. There's nothing wrong with a hug, is there? No, he's just being overly sensitive… but then again, Dante can't be trusted. It starts with an innocent hug. Then slowly, in that stupidly charming way of his, it devolves into something Nero less innocent. However… he didn't try anything on Friday, and that was an actual kiss, not a hug. Sighing deeply, Nero mentally cursed at himself as he uncrossed his arms. Moving them downwards, he instead rested his arms over Dante's, his hands holding onto his wrists. It was a small gesture of equally small affection, but he still felt prickles moving on his neck that would insinuate the man had smiled at least a little bit.

"Are ya gonna tell me what you were doin' now?" He said, his voice softened but also a bit muffled since he did not remove his face from Nero's neck. 

"I was cleaning my arm." The vibrations produced from him speaking was pleasant against Dante's cheek, having an almost lullaby-like effect. 

"What for? Didn't you take a shower last night?"

"Yeah, some bits and pieces get left behind."

"Ah." Dante spoke to signify he understood, before opening his eyes and taking his face out of his neck. Instead, he placed his chin back on his shoulder, though this was not something that lasted long, as he had to move his head away to make room for Nero to rub his neck with his hand.

"You _need_ to shave." He said in a bit of a joking while also being serious tone as he rubbed before moving his arm back down to Dante's, revealing the red spot Dante had left from his stubble irritating the skin. Though, it didn't take long for this very minor injury to heal. 

"Huh. Even your skin gets irritated by my face." He joked with a smirk as he looked at him via their reflection.

"Whatever." Nero said with a smirk of his own. "I'm gonna be late." He said after a few seconds of silence, to which Dante responded "oh" and let him go. He had forgotten Nero even had work today.

"Knock 'em dead, babe." he told him as Nero quickly left the room to gather his coat, not to flee from Dante but so as to not waste anymore time. 

"Oh shut up." Nero retorted, though Dante could've sworn he saw a smile on his face as he flashed out of the room with Red Queen in hand, but this could've easily just of been his imagination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I've been noticing there are some odd formatting errors that occur when I'm switching from the platform I write on to here. If you notice something that doesn't quite look write, don't be afraid to let me know!


End file.
